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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that ALL cyclists on a road should wear a helmet?!

134 replies

justneedsomesleep · 21/08/2008 19:45

Is it illegal if they don't? I mean it's for their own safety. Was in the car this evening and old(ish) man on bike - about 60 was merrily cylcing along, not at a great speed either and was causing a huge back log of traffic. But the most alrming thing was that he wasn't wearing a helmet!?

Have visions of his head splitting open on the ground like a watermelon in the case of an accident.
He didn't seem to care at all - no concern for safety and as if he was out for a Sunday pm bike ride.....

Aaaargghh!

OP posts:
gomez · 21/08/2008 21:33

I cycle a fair bit - sometimes with a helmet and sometime without. If I am out proper road cycling then I do wear a helmet because as PB (hi by the way) says the speeds I can reach are quite high. When I am cycling with the kids I wear a helmet as I expect them to do so. If I am on my tod cycling to Uni for example then I don't. If I get melted by a car in that circumstance my helment aint really going to help.

As an aside if I am going somewhere with my 2 youngest in one of those crappy trailer things I try my hardest to play chicken with any large lorry I can find - just for the hell of it you understand Armadillo. Not because maybe I am cycyling somewhere with a purpose, using the bike and trailer as a means of transport, not out for a wee Sunday bimble for some exercise. A means of transport which has I am fairly sure as much right as any other to use the frigging road . I have also found lorry drivers give a trailer miles of space, far more than I get when on my own.

Upwind · 21/08/2008 21:37

I don't think I've ever had a problem with a lorry coming too close to me on a bike. It is the idiot drivers who seem to think I am invisible or shouldn't be on their road that are the problem.

Upwind · 21/08/2008 21:39

and of course, if a lorry did hit me, a helmet is unlikely to make a difference

if I did not say so already YABU

madness · 21/08/2008 21:39

prettybird the "opposing evidence" is also in the BMJ.....

DwayneDibbley · 21/08/2008 21:43

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prettybird · 21/08/2008 21:43

... that's waht I meant but as I'm not the one who reads it (and other publications - as you can imagine, even though it wasn't my dad's field, it has now become somewhat of an expert), I wouldn't know where to look. I just know my dad has said that there are two sides to the evidence - both for and against. And as I said at the start, as a helmet saved my mum's life, I'm biased!

DwayneDibbley · 21/08/2008 21:44

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DwayneDibbley · 21/08/2008 21:44

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Upwind · 21/08/2008 21:47

Banning cars from our cities would save thousands and thousands of lives. Surely that is worth it, no?

Upwind · 21/08/2008 21:49

So long as drivers are alert and competent, cycling is quite safe. More lives could be saved through decent cycle lanes and advertising aimed at improving motorists' awareness - I think they even removed the bit about giving cyclists a wide berth from the highway code!

tortoiseSHELL · 21/08/2008 21:50

My aunt is both an avid cyclist and a consultant neurologist who works specifically with head injuries. She said that anyone who thinks they shouldn't wear a cycle helmet should see some of her patients.

Yes, you can get other injuries. But the head injuries are the really devastating ones that can change your personality in a split second.

I do think they are equivalent to seatbelts tbh, and get very cross when I see particularly children without helmets.

tortoiseSHELL · 21/08/2008 21:51

not wearing a helmet can impact on other people - if you end up spending a year in a neuro rehab ward simply because you didn't wear a helmet, that is a fairly significant impact on the taxpayer.

prettybird · 21/08/2008 21:52

.. and as a family we have cycled all our lives. Dad cycled to work as the "mad consultant" 30 years ago. Mum & Dad have cycled all over the world. They still cycle - they now have a specially built tandem in which Mum is semi-recumbent.

He takes an active role in promoting cycling and road/cyclist safety where he lives.

So it is something we have always been interested in and that he continues to research.

Interestingly, jsut before the accident, I had asked them about helmets (a guy at work was about to start cycling into to work and was not wanting to wear a helmet) and it was my mum who said that it didn't necessarily protect you agaisnt road traffic but did protect you agaisnt falls. Thank goodness she followed her own advice.

Lubyloo · 21/08/2008 21:54

Sorry to hear about your friend Dwayne . What I meant is that it doesn't impact on anyone else's safety unlike for example if someone drives and uses a mobile.

tortoiseSHELL · 21/08/2008 21:57

I knew of someone who was knocked off their bike, no helmet, went to hospital with broken collar bone, then died about 6 hours later of brain haemorrhage that would have been prevented if he had worn a helmet. It's an absolute non-question as far as we are concerned.

AbbeyA · 21/08/2008 22:11

I don't mind whether they choose to wear them or not but I don't see how they can expect their children to wear them when they don't. When I wanted my DCs to wear helmets I got one for myself. I regularly see families cycle by, with only the children wearing helmets.A very poor example IMO.

prettybird · 21/08/2008 22:17

Thought I should also mention that my work collegaue does now wear a helmet. I wonder why?

BTW tortoiseSHELL - my mum did eventually (after 6 weeks in a general surgery ward where she was put after getting back from India, so 10 weeks the accident as she spent 4 weeks in two fantasitc hospitals in India) get onto a rehab ward as a "special case" 'cos she was over 65 (an extremely fit 66 year old) and techncially not "eligible" due to agism in the NHS. She was only there for a couple of months: she left far too soon - not the fault of the hospital but 'cos she was encouraged in her beleif that "she shouldn't be in hospital" by a relative (not my dad or me) so the hospital ended up not being to treat her. And once she was "in the community", she was left at the mercy of the "Community Old People's Service" to whom, as a relatively fit 66 year old, she was outwith their normal experience and discharged her. No real treatment of her brain injuries and ongoing needs: hence my dad still getting higher rate attendance allowance. It is a real indictment of the UK's treamtent and rehabilitation of head injuries.

Note to everyone: make extra sure not to get a head injury after 65 as you won't get any help from the NHS.

tortoiseSHELL · 21/08/2008 22:22

That is quite shocking! I guess like anything in the NHS it varies from post code to post code.

Hope your mum is doing well and that your dad is coping ok.

cadelaide · 21/08/2008 22:28

Oh of course YABU.

You'll be insisting I wear padded lycra next in case I get infected saddle sores.

(could be life threatening.....unlikely, but could be...)

tortoiseSHELL · 21/08/2008 22:30

Try saying that to the wife of the person I knew whose death would have been ENTIRELY prevented had he worn a helmet.

TinkerBellesMum · 21/08/2008 22:34

I agree, I think it's selfish. If a car driver hit a cyclist and killed them because they weren't wearing a helmet the driver (even if they weren't convicted of anything) will have to live with it for the rest of their life. Where's the respect for the family?

Mum was in accident before I was born, she was at traffic lights on motorbike and a car hit her. She was thrown into the air, landed on the roof and the driver pulled her to the floor before driving off. Fortunately for Mum she was in full leather and a full face helmet on. She only broke her odontoid peg and she still suffers from problems with it now. Whenever I see someone wearing normal clothes or even shorts(!) I shudder.

prettybird · 21/08/2008 22:41

It is highly post code related But while I think that most people have an understanding of that, they may not also realise that it is also based on what age you are

Richard Hammond was lucky - he was young. He got treated.

Anyway we digress. My dad does and will cope - although it has aged him visibly (as ti does many other carers in simialr situations). We (as a family) are "lucky": we can afford private physiotherapy. We would pay for private speech therapy - only there isn't anyone (now - she went home to NZ where she would get paid better) in the West of Scotland (outwith the hospital) who is a specialist in acquired brain injury speech problems. This is a major issue for my mum as she was an English teacher.

DwayneDibbley · 21/08/2008 22:53

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bellabelly · 21/08/2008 22:55

I just don't think that, in a serious accident, a cycle helmet would provide any real protection so what's the point of wearing one?

tortoiseSHELL · 21/08/2008 22:57

bellabelly - maybe in a really really bad accident you'd die anyway. But you don't know when you set out whether you're going to have no accident, a minor accident, a more major one, or a catastrophic one. But a helmet will save your life in the sort of accident where you might be knocked off your bike. For example, the person I knew - he was nudged by a car. It should have been a simple broken collar bone, better in 6-8 weeks or so. He died because the back of his head hit the pavement. Had he worn a cycle helmet he would be alive.

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