Do your DC wear bike helmets ?

[Tipsykisses]

My Ds has always worn a helmet , he's 7 now and rides really well so now rides to school with Dp (his dad) .

The bikes are kept in PIL garage a few doors down from us as we don't have room at our house , all our nieces & nephews are in and out regularly and ds helmet couldn't be found this morning .

I've told Dp he either needs to find the helmet or we need to buy a new one if Ds is going to continue to ride his bike but he thinks I'm over reacting & says that plenty of children ride without them .

Am I over reacting ?

No helmet, no bike.
DH is a dr & his stint in A&E gave him first hand experience on their importance in the UK.
My brother was also a professional downhiller & set the no protection, no ride precedent in our house.
Kids also think what he does is cool so have no problems with wearing a helmet like their uncle.... In fact DS wants to know when he can have body protection hmm
You cannot compare cycling in the NL with the UK - the rules, attitude & infrastructure means the situation is very very different.
Dutch professional cyclists & mountain bikers also do wear protection as if you do cycle fast or in tricky conditions protection is not optional.
The 'evidence' that car drivers are less careful around helmet wearers is viewed by many as similar to the 'evidence' that 'baby on board' stickers make you drive safer around those cars hmm
DS rides his bike loads & as the helmet lives with the bike (hangs of handle bars & gets chained with bike when out) it doesn't ever stop or deter him from riding.

The flat back lorry could not see my lad behind his vehicle. It was partly my lads fault for going behind to have a nosey at the pop they were delivering. The vehicle can not have been even going at half a mile an hour. The collision caused massive head injuries and general crush injuries.

I spoke to the doctor a short while later and he said if my son had had a helmet on the head injuries would not have been fatal but that the other crush injuries he had would more than likely have been.

Although my youngest son (he is 17) can ride a bike I have never encouraged it and when I see my 6 year old grandson riding his it makes me want to run away screaming.

BUT my GS knows the absolute rule - NO HELMET, NO BIKE.

Shabbs, that's terribly terribly sad, I'm so sorry for your loss. No-one should have to go through that.

Saying that you "hate posters who say this" is quite strong, and I'm unclear what is the "this" that you feel so strongly about? Was it something in my post?

You conclude that "nobody should ride a bike without a helmet". Why that, rather than "no parent should allow their child to ride their bike unsupervised until the child has proven they can spot a hazard like the lorry".

How come the driver didn't check if anyone was behind him? Did he think he was responsible for your son's death? Why do you hold yourself responsible, instead of being angry with the driver?

I just meant that sometimes I can be involved with a thread that is long running and someone will post and say 'I haven't read the whole thread' and it drives me mad - 'hate' was a very strong word!!

The part where I said 'nobody should ride a bike without wearing a helmet' just means that really. I do think that it should become a rule for children from the moment they get their first bike.

The driver of the lorry? He said he hadn't seen my son because the back of the lorry was loaded high with bottles of pop. He and his two helpers ran from the lorry and hid in a neighbours house. He wasn't arrested at the scene but asked to go to his local police station within 2 days. It went to court and the verdict was that it was accidental death - the judge said that the blame lay both with the driver and the child. The one massive problem I have with the driver (and I know him and his family - they live quite close to us) is.....he has never, ever said sorry. Never....and the accident was 22 years ago.

Why do I hold myself responsible? The only answer I can give to that is that he was my precious child and I didn't make him safe. The driver? I have been angry, sad, heartbroken, felt sorry for him that it happened, hated him, would like to kill him and a thousand other emotions.

I think it is terrible that it is basically acceptable to kill people with a motor vehicle. Fewer than half of those convicted of killing cyclists go to jail (and even less considering not all are charged or convicted).

This is typical thinking:

'A 26-year-old who is being taken to court for knocking down a cyclist and who cannot be named for legal reasons, said it was wrong to penalise those who kill or injure a cyclist in what could be seen as unfortunate accidents.

"I don't think it's fair because I wasn't driving dangerously, I wasn't driving erratically," he said. "I just failed to see someone who was on the road."'

How about it's not fair to drive a dangerous weapon without looking where you are going.

Oh Shabbs, that's so difficult... he lives near you. You know, I can't even imagine that. I know I'd want to move away.

I want to ask, what was your boys name, what did he look like. He would be 29, 30 now, right? But I guess you might not want to say on this forum.

I can see why you never want anything so dreadful to happen to anyone else ever again. And I guess that as you believe so firmly that lids can help, it makes you feel frustrated that people like me don't use them. Can you imagine that I really don't feel it's necessary, or is it that you think we should wear them as a kind of show of solidarity, or to help create a cultural norm?

I think I would like it to be a cultural norm to be honest.

Yes he lives about a mile away from us - weirdly enough never see him.

I am on the bereaved Mums section of Mumsnet so I love to talk about my sons!!

I should have 32 year old twin boys (we lost the smallest twin when he was 7 months old - congenital heart defects ) then Matthew (or Matt as he was always called) would be 30 now - he was almost 8 when he was killed. Then my wonderful, suprise, DS4 who was born when I was nearly 41 - he is now 17.

My eldest son and his wife have a 6yr old little lad - so I am a grandma as well.

Matt was hysterical - cheeky, funny, loved sports, Vincent Van Gogh, anything Egyptian, and (in his words) kissing girls!! LOL. I still see some of his primary school friends and they all talk about him and their memories even after all this time. People always smile when they talk about Matt.