AIBU // Bike Helmets...

[TryingToDad]

All my four children, and I, wear helmets when we're out on our bikes. My husband frequently removes his, or doesn't wear one altogether, usually claiming it makes his head too hot. I think he's a bloody idiot and I'd rather not have to explain to my kids why Daddy died because his head was too hot!!! AIBU or should I chill out a bit...? His suggestion...

Another interesting difference also between the Netherlands and other EU countries and the UK is the presumed liability variation when a cycle and a car have an accident.

In the Netherlands, they have a concept of presumed liability in circumstances involving a collision between a motor vehicle and a cyclist/pedestrian on a public road (whereby the motor vehicle as more presumed liability, if I understand it correctly, the thinking is that it is proportional to the damage one kind of user can afflict to another, so car can do lots of damage, cyclist less and pedestrian even less).

In the Netherlands, they have a concept of presumed liability in circumstances involving a collision between a motor vehicle and a cyclist/pedestrian on a public road (whereby the motor vehicle as more presumed liability, if I understand it correctly, the thinking is that it is proportional to the damage one kind of user can afflict to another, so car can do lots of damage, cyclist less and pedestrian even less).

Yes. "Presumed" meaning that if the driver proves the cyclist was at fault it's the cyclist's liability (ie not a get out of jail free card for cyclists), but in the absence of any proof of liability, the person piloting the vehicle with the most capacity to do damage is liable because they have a greater duty of care.

The principle applies when cyclists hit pedestrians too - the cyclist is presumed liable.

It's a very rational approach, and I'd welcome it here.

He's an idiot and should wear a helmet. Tragically a little boy I taught died last year after falling off his bike and bumping his head - he wasn't wearing a helmet because it wasn't on the road, just pootling round at the bottom of his block of flats. He cried, nothing to see really, cuddle from mum. He went to bed that night and died in his sleep - massive bleed on his brain. The pathologist said that a helmet would have saved his life. He was 7 years old. :(

Over 3/4 of child deaths, over the age of 1, are due to traffic incidents. That's about 1,800 per year. How many of those could be prevented if children wore helmets when travelling in a car, or as pedestrians?

I do think people should wear helmets but equally people need to understand that the benefits of them are not cut and dried. I have no issue with adults taking the decision not to wear one if they make an informed decision on the risks.

Over 3/4 of child deaths, over the age of 1, are due to traffic incidents. That's about 1,800 per year.

I'm certainly not one to minimise the damage cars do to people but are you sure about those stats? Great Britian road deaths of children under 15 in 2018 (latest numbers I found) was about 45.

Always worn a bike helmet always will. I have suffered from 2 massive brain injuries. The first one I was kicked continuously in the back of my head resulting in concussion and severe migraines. I missed the crucial stages of school and just scraped by on passing my GCSES because of all the time I missed. Then 4 years ago when the back of my head met a wooden floor at speed, although not bike related. I ended up with severe concussion, spent a week in hospital with a suspected brain bleed. Had to have a lumbar puncture, CT scans and MRI scans. 12 weeks after I started having non epileptic seizures and had to have an EEG done too. 4 years later I still suffer with memory problems, I'm unable to talk properly when I'm tired or stressed, I have emotional issues and anger issues and at times I am unable to get words out. I know what I want to say I just can't get the correct word out and it's frustrating. After the second one I now suffer from hemiplegic migraines which leave me with limited to no feeling in my body which due to the severity of both brain injuries sometimes have to treated in hospital.

Banjostarz - you are quite literally on your high horse up there judging the choices of lesser mortals

@Macncheeseballs

Speaking as someone whose life has quite literally been saved by wearing a protective helmet, I’m judging the choices of other people to not use available safety equipment, I’m quite happy with my position.

"I have no issue with adults taking the decision not to wear one if they make an informed decision on the risks"
I do, because they are being very stupid. You cant reverse brain injury. It has a massive impact not only on themselves, but on their family who could end up giving up their lives to care for them. People dont think brain injury will happen to them. You dont see a lot of people out and about with brain injury. A lot of the reasons for this is they are either so ill they are in hospital or homes...or too frightened to leave their own home because theyve lost their eyesight or their balance, or their speech. Or the loss of their bowels or ability to walk. Think about that for a moment before you you decide to make an " informed choice" about not wearing a helmet.

Why don't we wear helmets in all the other places brain injury occurs? In cars, as pedestrians, climbing ladders, when it's windy?

We all take risks every day, calculated ones. The risks of not wearing a helmet are pretty low and it's up to the adult to decide. It is far better for your health to cycle without a helmet than to not cycle at all.

Breathless, because the risks are low in other scenarios. Riding at bike you are moving at some speed and could hit kerbs of bumps, or indeed other people, or cars. So the risk is higher than say walking at a slow pace, where your brain can make judgements about where to put their feet etc. Its not hard to see that is it? Some people do wear helmets climbing ladders. We dont wear them in cars because the car itself offers some protection, but they do wear them in race cars. Just because people dont wear them in other situations doesnt mean you shouldn't, when you can. I suspect you would eat your words if you ended up cleaning up someone you loves' mess several times a day, because brain injury turned them incontinent. Or sitting crying to yourself silently when they cant tell you what they want.

And brain injury can occur in lots of other ways, and no, you wouldnt always wear a helmet in those situations, but we need to reduce the number of lives lost or ruined in this country by encouraging helmet use. A few years ago a lady by me slipped crossing a road and banged her head on the kerb and a brain bleed killed her. Now you would never wear a helmet crossing the road would you, it was a tragic accident. But you absolutely should wear one riding a bike.

TabbyMumz, I'm very sorry if this has a personal dimension for you, but passionate belief, unsupported assertions and dire warnings, while emotive, are not especially convincing.

I'd much rather see that passion go into pushing for better behaviour by drivers and encouraging cyclists to take road cycling training, both of which would make a real difference, instead of plastic hats that at most slightly protect one person.

Speaking as someone whose life has quite literally been saved by wearing a protective helmet, I’m judging the choices of other people to not use available safety equipment, I’m quite happy with my position.

But a helmet isn't going to protect you from everything, so why take the risk of riding at all?

Have you, perhaps, decided to trade off accepting some small risk in return for something that you enjoy? Therefore, who are you to tell others they can't do the same?

"I'd much rather see that passion go into pushing for better behaviour by drivers and encouraging cyclists to take road cycling training, both of which would make a real difference, instead of plastic hats that at most slightly protect one person".

Theres no rule that says we cant do both. Ie encourage the use of helmets a d improve bike awareness etc . And those plastic hats as you call them protect more of the brain than you think. They could be the difference between a life of headaches and epilepsy, or being a vegetable or death. There is a massive range in brain injuries, and I know what end of the scale I'd want to be at. And yes it is personal. People arent making an informed choice if they dont know what it's like to have it happen to someone you love. They really have no idea.

I did some number crunching using the 2018 UK road casualty numbers.

For the length of my commute, assuming I cycle 5 days a week but have 4 non-cycling weeks a year and everything else being equal, I'd have a serious accident once every 65 years, and die once every 11,690 years.

I am ok with that risk.

Theres no rule that says we cant do both. Ie encourage the use of helmets a d improve bike awareness etc

You're right, there isn't. Yet for all the people who ask me if I wear a helmet and are aghast when I say no, I've never had anyone ask me if I've taken advantage of free cycling training for my commuting route (I have). So it seems there's plenty of awareness of helmets and not enough enough of cycle training, when of the two it's the one that gives the most safety benefits by helping avoid accidents in the first place, so maybe it's time to put a bit more emphasis on that side.

PPE is supposed to be the thing you do last to mitigate risks you haven't been able to design, train and educate away, not a thing you do instead of education, training and design.

Breathless, because the risks are low in other scenarios

No they are not. I once walked out someone's house when it was icy, didn't realise it was icy and went arse over apex and whacked my head on the ground outside the door. I have a hard head, I was lucky and had minor concussion and a sore neck for a few days and have been fine since.

I have never fallen off a bike in adulthood. I've slipped over running a couple of times and not hit my head and I've slipped over walking in snow/ice a couple of times and not hit my head. But I've fallen over.

So in my experience, walking and running is more dangerous than cycling.

And cycling with an ill-fitting helmet (which 90%+ do, is worse than useless).

The most dangerous thing for me about cycling is those awful little child seats that people have on the back of their bikes. If you go over on one of those, you can jump clear, your child is stuck there and there is a high chance of them breaking their neck, but it's fine because they're wearing a helmet.

A Hövding would be a good compromise, advertised as an airbag for your head and safer than a normal cycle helmet

Looks great

@Blibbyblobby

Speaking as someone whose life has quite literally been saved by wearing a protective helmet, I’m judging the choices of other people to not use available safety equipment, I’m quite happy with my position.

But a helmet isn't going to protect you from everything, so why take the risk of riding at all?

Have you, perhaps, decided to trade off accepting some small risk in return for something that you enjoy? Therefore, who are you to tell others they can't do the same?

@Blibbyblobby

I have indeed decided to trade off taking some small risk in return for something I enjoy but I also make every effort to mitigate that risk - such as wearing a protective helmet.

I do not understand why anyone would choose to partake in a risk based hobby and not mitigate the risk by using safety equipment, it’s inexplicable.

I do not understand why anyone would choose to partake in a risk based hobby and not mitigate the risk by using safety equipment, it’s inexplicable.

Leaving aside the fact that cycling is transport, not a "risk based hobby", please see my personal risk assessment above.

The risk to me simply isn't high enough to justify the inconvenience of wearing a helmet every time I get on a bike and carrying one around with me every time I get off.

And that's before we even start down the route of research into the risks helmets introduce themselves, by increasing the size of the head making impacts more frequent, by being worn incorrectly, and by risk compensation.

Incidentally, I do wear a helmet when i snowboard, because it's a riskier activity than cycling for me.

This experiment is a really interesting demonstration of how cycle helmets subconsciously influence risk-taking behaviour.

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190815101554.htm

The point as well is that wearing a helmet affects behaviour. Car drivers give LESS space to cyclists wearing helmets. Cyclists wearing helmets are more likely to take risks.

Andecdotes aren't data. Awful, sad accidents happen all the time. There is no evidence that helmets save lives or serious injury.

I do wear a helmet, but the only time I've come off my bike is when stationary and failed to unclip my feet. My head didn't touch the ground, as my hands did what they do when you fall.

If I hit a pothole at 15mph, my helmet is unlikely to help. I rarely cycle under 12mph.

I've had 3 fairly serious bicycle crashes resulting in head injuries, and was wearing a helmet each time. The worst one I suspect the helmet made it worse, and I probably wouldn't have bumped my head at all had I not been wearing it. (A helmet makes your head significantly bigger and heavier, making it much more likely to hit the ground in many types of crash). I have also fallen off a number of times whilst not wearing a helmet. I've never even bumped my head in those crashes. I do wear a helmet for certain types of cycling depending on speed, but not for every day commuting and shopping etc. I am no more likely to fall off doing those than I am when walking.
I have a baby and I don't put a helmet on her when she is in her bike seat. A helmet is not some kind of panacea against all ills. If I thought I was going to fall off with her on the bike, I would not take her. I don't put a helmet on her when carrying her down the stairs either. The risk of tripping and falling then is probably far higher.
Due to the safe nature of cycling and the flimsy nature of cycling helmets, the benefits are not clear cut. The benefits of being fit and healthy are not in doubt though