Mandatory bike helmet laws:
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A health benefit model developed at Macquarie University in Sydney and published in March 2009 suggests Australia's national mandatory bicycle helmet laws incur a health cost to the country amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars every year. The Australian media has failed to report the story of NSW woman Sue Abbott who in September 2009 unsuccessfully challenged her prosecution for failing to wear a helmet on the grounds of potentially harming herself through compliance with the law. The Australian media aren't interested in telling the public about the victims of the country's helmet laws but you can read about this woman's court battle on the Danish website, copenhagenize.com or watch her story on video. On September 28, 2009, she was fined $50 and ordered to pay $50 court costs. Watch the court sequel. Sue has lodged an appeal with the District Court of New South Wales and the hearing is likely in February/March 2010. Read Sue Abbott's letter to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in November 2009 or read her blog. In June 2007, the Norwegian Centre for Transport Research published research (PDF 920kb) noting that: "There is evidence of increased accident risk per cycling-km for cyclists wearing a helmet. In Australia and New Zealand the increase is estimated to be around 14%. The introduction of a bicycle helmet law in these countries has additionally lead to a reduction of cycling-kilometres of 22%. This effect is likely to be larger for adolescents than for adults, and smallest for children." As detailed on this website, mandatory bicycle helmet legislation in the State of Western Australia resulted in cyclist injury increases and cyclist number declines around 30%. |
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In 2008, mechanical engineer and British Cycling Federation coach Colin Clarke pubished Assessment of Australia's Bicycle Helmet Laws (PDF 208kb), summarising and exposing key points about the harm caused to public health since mandatory helmet laws were enforced in 1990. In May 2009, the Danish Parliament voted 90 against 21 to defeat a Bill tabled by the Socialist People's Party for a mandatory bicycle helmet for children under 12. Danish politicians looked at the helmet law results in Australia since 1990 and decided not to harm their own society. In early June 2009, the Canadian province of Manitoba voted against a mandatory bicycle helmet law - the legislature opting for educating rather than punishing citizens who don't drive and instead exercise with the wind in their hair. The lack of a sun visor on bicycle helmets may increase the risk of facial skin cancer. In 2007, Queensland resident Alex Reid, who has cancer on his face, has been lobbying that state's government on the grounds that the helmet law should be unenforceable because it endangers the wearer. Research by Diffey and Cheeseman suggests that a hat with at least a 7.5cm brim is necessary to provide reasonable protection around the nose and cheeks, those sites on which non-melanoma skin cancers commonly occur. Read more about the sun cancer risk in Queensland. Published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine in April 2009, Deakin University research shows a link between reduced cycling and Australia's obesity crisis, as reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: "At the same time the proportion of children cycling to school is now so low it is statistically too insignificant to be considered on its own, says Hume, of Deakin University's Centre for Physical Activity and Nutrition Research. Hume says the decrease in what is known as active commuting has occurred at the same time as obesity rates among children have increased. Although, the researcher says "it is drawing a long bow" to directly link the two, the decrease in walking and cycling to school is part of the overall reduction in physical activity amongst children." (see Child cycling) In 2008, Intended and Unintended Effects of Youth Bicycle Helmet Laws (PDF 240kb) was published by Christopher Carpenter and Mark Stehr from the University of California: In this paper we confirm that helmet laws reduced fatalities, but we uncover robust evidence of an alternative and unintended mechanism: helmet laws significantly reduced youth bicycling. In early 2005, the prestigious international peer-review journal Accident Analysis and Prevention published a paper disproving the conclusions of most international case control studies since 1989 that have been used to justify the mandatory wearing of bicycle helmets (PDF 68kb). The international medical community should accept that these studies were fundamentally flawed, explaining why their conclusions have never had any similarity to the actual results of mandatory helmet laws in the real world.
The diagram above shows the bicycle share of trips in Europe, North America and Australia (percent of total trips by bicycle) and is sourced to 2007 data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the statistical services of all countries involved. In New Zealand, which has mandatory all-age bicycle helmet laws, the percentage is 1.8% of all trips. Australian helmet law supporters claim cycling popularity is booming in Australia. The truth can be found in the diagram above. This research is sourced to Making Cycling Irresistible (PDF 876kb) (Pucher and Buehler, Transport Reviews, Vol. 28 2008). The research notes: In the USA, much of the effort to improve cyclist safety has focused on increasing helmet use, if necessary by law, especially for children. Thus, it is important to emphasize that the much safer cycling in northern Europe is definitely not due to widespread use of safety helmets. On the contrary, in the Netherlands, with the safest cycling of any country, less than one percent of adult cyclists wear helmets, and even among children, only 3-5% wear helmets (Dutch Bicycling Council, 2006; Netherlands Ministry of Transport, 2006). The Dutch cycling experts and planners interviewed for this paper adamantly opposed the use of helmets, claiming that helmets discourage cycling by making it less convenient, less comfortable, and less fashionable. They also mention the possibility that helmets would make cycling more dangerous by giving cyclists a false sense of safety and thus encouraging riskier riding behavior. At the same time, helmets might reduce the consideration motorists give cyclists, since they might seem less vulnerable if wearing helmets (Walker, 2007). In November 2008, TransportXtra published an article by transport planner Richard Burton titled Cycle helmets have no measurable benefits and many disbenefits, so why are they advocated? Watch a video to see how well a bicycle helmet stands up to the force of being run over by a car. In the Netherlands, urban densities are approximately the same as in Sydney. Recent surveys show there are 14 times as many person trips by bike and 810% more bicycle kilometres ridden than in Australia. However, deaths of bike riders per 100,000 population is a third of that in Australia. Bicycle helmets are not mandatory and are rarely worn in the Netherlands.
This graph highlights the ratio of cyclist fatalities to estimated distance cycled and helmet wearing rates in various countries. In 2007, the French Government introduced a Velib system in Paris whereby commuters can hire a cheap bicycle from almost 1,500 spots around the city and return it after use - an initiative aimed at improving public health and reducing greenhouse gases (check YouTube to see what happens in a community where cycling is encouraged instead of discouraged). In 2008, American cities such as Washington DC introduced similar but free bicycle sharing schemes to cut traffic and reduce pollution. As reported by Time magazine in June 2008: One way Washington is trying to encourage widespread use of SmartBikes is by not requiring helmets, let alone providing them. "It's not a good idea to share helmets because you have sanitary issues and sweat issues," says Paul DeMaio, founder of MetroBike, a consulting firm that advises cities on implementing bike-sharing. "byoh, for sure." Diseases spread by unsanitary helmets include Staphylococcus Aureus and lice. As reported by The Age newspaper on November 26, 2007, a similar scheme for free bicycle use cannot be introduced in the Australian city of Melbourne because mandatory helmet laws, which are applicable to all ages, would make it unworkable. Read more about Australia's conflict between public health/safety and bike helmet laws at Situp-cycle.com. As reported by News Corporation in November 2008, mandatory helmet laws also jeopardise a bike hire scheme planned for the Gold Coast in the Australian state of Queensland. Because of the helmet law, no municipality has introduced a bike hire scheme in Australia, which is the fattest nation on earth and is planning a carbon emissions trading scheme possibly from 2011. However, in May, 2009, the Victorian Government in Australia budgeted $5 million for the creation of a bicycle hire system in Melbourne by 2010. As noted by Bicycle Victoria: "Helmet provision for public bikes could prove a significant problem in Melbourne where helmets are compulsory." Read the public commentary on mandatory helmets and bike hire at Sydney Cyclist. Israel introduced a national all-age mandatory bicycle helmet law in 2007, although reports indicate it is largely being ignored. As reported by Haaretz newspaper in November 2008, the city of Tel Aviv is trying to introduce a bike hire scheme but the helmet law is an obstacle: In addition, sources at city hall said that the mandatory helmet law recently passed by the Knesset dealt a "serious blow" to the project and will hinder its success. According to Tiomkin, residents will be reluctant to rent a helmet previously worn by dozens of others. The law, which was passed over the objections of public transportation advocacy groups, will go into effect at the end of the month. It requires all cyclists to wear a helmet or face a fine. However, Haaretz reported in October 2008 that the municipality is pushing for a solution: "The municipality is also hoping for an amendment to the helmets law in the near future, which will require the use of helmets only when using sports bicycles off urban roads." In other words, the solution is to effectively repeal the bicycle helmet law so that Israel can encourage healthy public recreation and reduce greenhouse pollution. In December 2009, The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel's Ministerial Committee for Legislation had thrown its support behind a bill which would remove the requirement for adults to wear a helmet while riding a bicycle in the city. The Irish capital of Dublin introduced the public hire of 450 bikes from 40 stations around the city in September 2009. The councillor who first mooted the scheme explained why helmets are not mandatory: Asked whether helmets should be made available to those hiring the bikes, he said there was little evidence available on their benefits. "In Brisbane they made helmet-wearing compulsory and although the rate of accidents dropped and they thought it was a success, they realised it was because the rate of cycling had dropped by 50 per cent," he said. "Helmets put people off." In January 2010, Auckland Cycle Chic considered how mandatory helmet laws are hampering bike share schemes in New Zealand, and The Bicycle Helmet Research Foundation further explains why bike sharing schemes are not being implemented in mandatory helmet jurisdictions. In March 2009, Australian Cyclist magazine published It makes your head spin, a sober overview of the opinions and evidence in the mandatory bicycle helmet law debate. Three submissions to the Garnaut Climate Change Review (see Bicycle Helmet Research Foundation, Cycle Safe and Chris Gillham) provide evidence that an immediate increase in bicycle use and decrease in Australia's greenhouse gases would result from repeal of mandatory bicycle helmet laws. The submissions have not been researched or reported by Australia's media. See CO2 Calculator. In 2003, the Injury Prevention journal published research demonstrating that the more cyclists on the road, the safer it is for all (PDF 140k).
Cartoon thanks to Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand Cyclery In December 2007, the British government agency Cycling England published Cycling and Health: What's the Evidence? (PDF 3.6mb), considered the most comprehensive guide ever written regarding the health benefits of cycling. This is a benchmark publication that should be read by all health professionals who want to encourage rather than discourage healthy exercise. An economic evaluation by the Road Accident Prevention Research Unit of the University of Western Australia found the mandatory helmet legislation most probably had a negative cost impact as high as $21 million between 1991 and 1998. Download a copy in Word or PDF, or view the report on your browser. This paper also highlights various of the medical and safety failures of Western Australia's mandatory bicycle helmet legislation. In 2003, the Health Promotion Journal of Australia published an article by Dr Chris Rissel who states that "The focus on bicycle helmets obscures the real issue for cyclists..." (PDF 232kb). Dr Rissel is also quoted in September 2008 within ScienceDaily - A Virtuous Cycle: Safety In Numbers For Bicycle Riders and at a seminar by the University of New South Wales Injury Risk Management Research Centre in September 2008.
The New York Times has analysed America's increasing use of bicycle helmets, voluntary and mandatory, and found "the rate of head injuries per active cyclist has increased 51 percent just as bicycle helmets have become widespread". You can read the same story in The St Petersburg Times or here.
It has been argued that the increase in cyclist injuries on West Australian roads is a result of greater motor vehicle numbers since 1991, when the helmet law was enacted. However, cycleways throughout Perth are far better now than in 1991, extensive construction providing a safer non-road environment. This has been one of the claimed infrastructure improvements of West Australian governments for the past decade and Perth is now recognised as having the best cyclepath network of any Australian city. The percentage of crashes involving only the cyclist and not another vehicle increased from 78.8% in 87/89 to 84.7% in 93/95 - an increase of almost 6%. In July 2009, Perth was voted by Travel + Leisure magazine to be the 5th most cycle-friendly city in the world due to its extensive cycleways. Further to this, less cyclists = more cars. Tens of thousands of cyclists abandoned their bicycles when Western Australia's mandatory helmet law was enforced on July 1, 1992, many instead choosing to drive their cars. An immediate increase in hospital admissions from vehicle crashes suggests the resultant rise in car numbers increased the safety risk for all road users. The Northern Territory government of Australia has repealed compulsory bicycle helmet laws for adults on paths not adjacent to roadways. People were stopped in the streets of Darwin, the capital of the Northern Territory, and asked what effect mandatory helmets had on their cycling behaviour. 22% claimed to have given up cycling because of the helmet legislation and 20% to 30% said they cycled less. Australia Cycling: Bicycle Ownership, Use and Demographics 2004 draft (PDF download, 944kb) shows that cycling to work is more popular in the Northern Territory than anywhere else in Australia. The Northern Territory percentage of 4.2% compared with a national average of just 1.3% in 2001. Cycling generally is more popular in the Northern Territory than anywhere else (15.3% of people cycle in the Northern Territory for exercise, recreation or sport... compared to a national average of 9.5%). Why? One reason is because women are not discouraged by the law. According to the 2001 Census, 35.6% of recreational cyclists in the Northern Territory are women, compared to a national average of 32.2%. In the Territory, 31% of people who cycle to work are women. This is the highest percentage in Australia and compares with a national average of just 19%. The report shows that just 75 cyclists were hospitalised in the Northern Territory in 2001 - a number disproportionately low by comparison with the Territory's population of 210,000 in 2001 (the lowest proportion of any Australian state or territory and the only place in Australia where adults can and do legally cycle without a helmet). The graph below clearly illustrates that women in the Northern Territory are far more likely to cycle than women in other Australian cities:
Research by Wasserman et al. (PDF 388k) in 1988 involved the questioning of 516 cyclists on the streets of Vermont as to whether they had struck their heads in a cycling mishap over the previous 18 months. The research indicated less likelihood of head injury to cyclists wearing a helmet. However, at the time of questioning 7.8% (40) were wearing helmets and 476 were not. Of the 21 cyclists who reported striking their heads in the previous 18 months, eight were wearing helmets at the time of the mishap. This is 20% of the 40 helmeted cyclists questioned. The 13 other unhelmeted cyclists who had struck their heads represented 2.7% of the 476 unhelmeted cyclists who were questioned in the study. This suggests helmeted cyclists were about seven times more likely to have struck their heads than unhelmeted cyclists. Such results help to explain why most helmet law supporters believe a helmet has saved their life - it's partly because they are more likely to have an accident, during which they are more likely to hit their heads. An observational study in 1995 found the overall helmet wearing rate for West Australian cyclists to be 77%, compared to 81% in 1993, 62% in 1992 and 39% in 1991 (pre-legislation) (Market Equity, 1995). In January 2001, Royal Perth Hospital (the largest in Western Australia) estimated 16% of cyclist admissions were not wearing a helmet when injured. In 2004, the hospital's records showed 20% of cyclists admitted for trauma injuries were not wearing a helmet. If 23% of cyclists on WA roads are not wearing a helmet but 20% of cyclist hospital admissions are not wearing a helmet, these figures indicate cyclists not wearing a helmet are less likely to have an accident or suffer injuries requiring hospital treatment. Rotational brain injury is thought to be exacerbated by the centrifugal force of the helmet (see eMedicine or Philips Helmets for more detail). Research commissioned by the Department for Transport in the UK and published in 2007 found there is cause to believe greater head injury results from helmets in angular impacts, dependent upon speed and the size of the helmet. Most accident helmet impacts are angular rather than direct blows and angular impact causes the most brain damage. New Scientist magazine reported in February 2001 that a revolutionary new helmet design was being developed to to try to minimise rotational brain injury. The design is still on the drawing board and existing mandatory bike helmets continue to exacerbate rotational brain injury. Read more about rotational brain injury. A 2003 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics into the correct wearing of bicycle helmets notes that improper bicycle helmet fit increases the risk of head injury compared to a properly fitted helmet. The survey study concludes that "ninety-six percent of children and adolescents wore helmets in inadequate condition and/or with inadequate fit". You can also download the full survey study (PDF 80kb). You might like to read the opinion of Brian Walker, a leading expert on the mechanics of helmets whose company Head Protection Evaluations is the principal UK test laboratory for bicycle helmets. In January 1999, a Regulation Impact Statement titled Protective Helmets for Pedal Cyclists: Consumer Product Safety Standard (Trade Practices Act 1974) was issued by the Consumer Affairs Division of the Department of the Treasury in Australia. The document deals with improved safety standards for bike helmets sold in Australia and was prepared by the Federal Government in Canberra. Appendix B of the Statement addresses problems associated with second hand helmets. This unpublicised document concedes that "second hand helmets may be dangerous", and canvasses several options for action:
* the sale of second hand helmets be banned; The document states that it's not known what "second hand" actually means. Remember, the helmet laws which compel all cyclists in Australia to wear a helmet mean that some are being forced to use a dangerous product under threat of State punishment. Many cyclists own and use a second hand helmet, whatever that is, and it's illegal for them NOT to wear it when they cycle... even though it "may be dangerous". The Victorian Government in Australia has increased the penalty for not wearing a bike helmet from $20 to $50, stating that it "confidently expected" a safety benefit because 125 non-wearers were casualties in 1999. However, the government gave no number for wearers. According to official figures, wearers outnumber non-wearers by a ratio of 3 to 1 across Victoria. If helmets work, the ratio should obviously be less. In fact, with 695 casualties wearing helmets in 1999, the ratio exceeded 5 to 1. The full statistics from VicRoads are as follows: Accidents by injury level for bicyclists, Victoria 1999
The table shows that out of the 820 casualties whose helmet wearing was known, 695 or 85% wore one. Of the corresponding 249 who suffered fatal or serious injury, 198 or 80% wore a bike helmet. Both of these proportions exceed the latest measured statewide wearing rate of 75%. A rational response to these disturbing results would be to review the bike helmets law, not to blindly increase the penalty and increase the injury risk by forcing more cyclists to wear helmets. (Research courtesy Cyclists Rights Action Group) Since the bicycle helmet law was introduced in Victoria, cycling in Melbourne has been unable to recover its previous share of the transport split. In 1985/86, 3.4% of trips in Melbourne were by bicycle. Data released in 2004 showed the cycling proportion at 2%. Statistics for all Australian States are dependent upon research conducted by each government. Bill Curnow from the Cyclists Rights Action Group has written an analysis. American Heritage invention and technology magazine provides a detailed history of all types of helmets. On football helmets introduced in the 1950s, the magazine notes: "However, it had a paradoxically catastrophic effect on injuries. It reduced some head damage but was held responsible for a tripling of neck injuries and a doubling of deaths from cervical spine injuries." On bicycle helmets which began to enter the market from the 1970s, the magazine notes: " By 2001, the CPSC reported, 69 percent of child cyclists and 43 percent of adults in the United States wore helmets. Yet this apparent success has turned up a paradox. In the decade from 1991 to 2001 the surge in helmets was accompanied by a decline in ridership and an increase in cyclist accidents, resulting in 51 percent more head injuries per bicyclist." Vietnam has made helmets compulsory for motorbikes. As reported in September 2007, this has resulted in far more people buying electric bikes which they can ride without a helmet. Colin Clarke presented the world's first helmet petition to the Victorian parliament in 1991, calling for repeal of the mandatory bike helmet legislation in that Australian state. Colin, who is a qualified mechanical engineer, cycling coach and road safety campaigner, has prepared an explanatory document providing technical details about the mechanical deficiencies of helmet design and the socially damaging impact of their mandatory use. For answers to questions you may have explaining why helmets don't perform the way you've been told, click here. February 17 2009: Enquiries are launched after a New Zealand cyclist not wearing a helmet is pepper-sprayed by police and his bicycle is rammed by a police car (also see The Nelson Mail). The first West Australian ever jailed for riding a bicycle was put behind bars in December 1992. Various West Australians were imprisoned in the early 1990s for failure to pay helmet infringement fines. One man was booked 14 times and placed behind bars five times for riding his bike without a helmet, claiming officers were stationed at his address to monitor his activities. Under new legislation, fine defaulters have their driver's licence suspended or have household goods seized by the bailiff to the value of the unpaid fine... for riding a bike. Pepper spray and batons were used by West Australian police in February 2001 to subdue an enraged cyclist who was booked for cycling without a helmet. This case was extreme, but highlights the level of simmering public anger over the theft of their civil rights. West Australian cyclist hospital admissions 1985-2000 623 in 1985 Cyclist road number surveys in Perth show cycling participation had recovered to slightly exceed pre-law figures by 1998/99. To put the cycling injury rate into perspective and despite the increased risk of accident/injury caused by Western Australia's mandatory helmet law, it is worth considering the reasons for admission to Perth's Princess Margaret Hospital for Children in the summer of 2007/08: 860 West Australians were admitted to hospital emergency departments in the 1999/2000 financial year for dog bites, and 46 people drowned. More than 4,000 elderly West Australians are admitted to hospital each year because of a fall, and 74 Australians died between 1996 and 1999 when they fell off a ladder. An estimated 18,000 Australians die every year and thousands more are injured because of mistakes made in hospitals. On average, seven cyclists died each year in Western Australia before helmet law enforcement in 1992, and this average has dropped to five. Before 1992, an average 655 West Australians were admitted to hospital each year for bike injuries. In 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2000, the consecutive annual hospital admissions of cyclists were 754, 850, 862 and 913. Golf injuries: do golfers need helmets? notes studies showing that almost as many people are injured playing golf as cycling. See also Golf-related head injuries in children increasing along with sport's popularity and Golfplan international golf insurance. Every day, about 190 West Australians aged over 65 will fall over. About 60 will be so seriously injured they will need to go to hospital. More than 4,000 elderly West Australians are admitted to hospital each year as the result of a fall (not bicycle-related). One in three people over the age of 65 will have falls requiring hospital treatment. Of these, between 20% and 40% will be dead within a year, meaning that falling over matches cancer and cardiovascular disease as a major killer of the elderly. Why aren't helmets mandatory for the elderly in their own homes? The risk of injury requiring hospital treatment as a result of cycling is around 0.005 per 100 hours. This compares with 0.19 for football, 0.13 for squash, 0.11 for basketball and netball and 0.06 for soccer. Errors in hospitals claim the lives of 4,550 Australians every year, according to the final report of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission released in July 2009. A Health Department of Western Australia study concludes that "the results of this analysis are similar to those identified in other studies around Australia. The rates of bike injury hospitalisations and deaths have remained fairly constant in Western Australia over the period 1981 to 1995, in comparison with a marked decrease in vehicle crash and overall injury rates. Bike injury rates are measured against the whole population, however, rather than against the cyclist population. If trends in the number of Western Australian cyclists over the study period do not parallel overall changes in the WA population, these results may be misleading. Unfortunately, accurate exposure data for bicycle-riding in Western Australia were not available for this analysis." Accurate exposure data for bicycle riding in Western Australia is available, as demonstrated on this website, and the results are only misleading in that they mask the true damage caused by the mandatory helmet legislation. Every day, Perth residents make 240,000 car trips that are less than one kilometre long. Discouragement of cycling through helmet laws results in more vehicle traffic on the road for short trips, worsening both pollution and the injury and fatality toll among motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.
The percentage of people in Western Australia suffering bike accident head injuries, as opposed to other causes, fell from 22 per cent in 1991 to 17.3 per cent in 1992 when the helmet law was enforced by police, but then rose to 21.7 per cent in 1993. The number of cyclist head injuries in 1994 was about two per cent less than in 1991, the year the compulsory helmet law was introduced. The average percentage of head injuries suffered in the four years after the 1992 introduction of the law in Western Australia was 3% less than the previous four years, even though the percentage of recreational cyclists wearing helmets increased from 39% in 1991 to 77% in 1995, and the number of cyclists on the road fell by about 30%. One Street, an international non-profit organization based in Prescott, Arizona has this to say about bicycle helmets:
Find out about transport trends in Australia since the 1970s in Unsustainable trends in the Australian Census Data for the journey to work in Melbourne and other cities in Victoria (PDF 1.2meg). Read Making Walking and Cycling Safer: Lessons for Australia from the Netherlands Experience (PDF 388kb) and ponder why the author mentions the word "helmet" just once in the entire document. Within public submissions to the West Australian Parliament's 1994 Select Committee on Road Safety inquiry into Compulsory Helmet Wearing For Bicyclists and Other Bicycling Issues, 3% fully supported the helmet legislation, 33% cent gave conditional support and 66% were either totally opposed or opposed to compulsory helmets for adults. Below is an extract from the select committee report: "As a consequence of newspaper advertisements which invited submissions to the Committee on any road safety issue within its Terms of Reference, 412 submissions were received to 1 March 1994 on numerous safety matters. The number of submissions in which the bicycle helmet wearing issue was referred, totalled 327. These represent 79% of all submissions. There were 1598 signatories on 19 submissions, almost all of which opposed helmet wearing for adults. The relevance of these statistics is diminished by the fact that some single submissions were from organisations and associations who may represent significant additional numbers of people but counted as a single submission".
Cartoon thanks to Yehuda Moon and the Kickstand Cyclery The Centre for Neuro Skills advocates legislation yet in explaining bike helmets and the prevention of head injury, it states: The testing of bike helmets approved by either the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) or the Snell Memorial Foundation indicated that using any helmet will protect the brain and neck during a crash more effectively than not using any helmet at all (18). However, these tests identified potential problems with helmet design, including a tendency for all helmets to slip out of proper position with the unequal application of force; a tendency for hard-shell helmets to slide on concrete, potentially increasing the risk for facial injury in a crash; and a likelihood for soft or no-shell helmets to catch or drag on concrete surfaces, causing the head to decelerate at a faster rate than the rest of the body, which potentially increases the risk for neck injuries (18). Subsequent tests indicated that helmets covered with a hard shell or a micro-shell (i.e., a very thin plastic covering) were least likely to cause injury to the head and neck region (19). These fundamental design flaws recognised in the tests by international authorities negate the many suppositions used to justify helmet legislation. Furthermore, their injury-causing consequences are apparent in the West Australian results. Variation in design and performance of Australian pedal cycle helmets: towards a consumer information program for child pedal cycle helmets (PDF 140kb) is a paper by vehicle and equipment safety researcher Julie Brown presented to the Australasian Road Safety Research, Policing and Education Conference in 2003. Among other failings, the research notes: Review of the Australian Standard compared to international pedal cycle helmet standards has also revealed that in many respects the Australian Standard is inferior in terms of the level of protection required. Bicycle helmets cannot protect against impact from a motor vehicle. To protect against a 20mph impact, the helmet needs 6.5 inches of foam; 30 mph - 15 inches; 40 mph - 29 inches. The common half inch adds virtually no protection from a vehicle impact. A Bell Sport 2000 motorcycle helmet weighs 1700 grams and a Giro Ventoux bike helmet weighs 200 grams. Yet the motorcycle helmet only protects against a 12mph impact. But seatbelts save lives! Not necessarily. They also cause more death and injury to pedestrians and cyclists, and you might be surprised if you visit Seat Belt Laws: Why You Should be Worried. On January 5, 2010, the National Post published Child care seats don't do as much good as we think. Respected British statistician and researcher John Adams analyses the impact of seat belt laws and the effect of risk compensation in Seat Belt Laws: A Clumsy Perspective (PDF download 368kb). The legal liability of victims (RTF 88kb) who do or don't wear helmets is examined in this insightful and informative document by Queens Counsel Bill Braithwaite from the Personal Injuries Bar Assocation in the UK. But helmets are good for motorcyclists, aren't they? Not necessarily. In America, the motorcycle fatality rate in helmet-law States is 2.97 deaths per 100 accidents versus 2.79 in helmet-free States. This amounts to 18 additional deaths per 10,000 accidents in mandatory helmet States! Further data on the increased death and injury rate from motorcycle helmets can be found here. On June 16, 2000, Governor Jeb Bush signed legislation to repeal the mandatory motorcycle helmet law in Florida, making it the 30th American State where motorcyclists have freedom of choice. Why? Because of the mass of evidence that motorcycle helmets do not reduce death and injury rates as is so widely believed, and because adults have been deemed to have a right to make their own choice in a democratic country. Click here to find out more. Research (PDF file 140kb) titled "The Effect of the Repeal of Florida's Mandatory Motorcycle Helmet-Use Law on Serious Injury and Fatality Rates" was released in April 2003 by Lisa Stolzenberg and Stewart J. D'Alessio from Florida International University. Extract: "When motorcycle registrations, preexisting trends, and seasonal factors are taken into account, the repeal of Florida's helmet-use law has little observable effect on serious injury and fatality rates... Because our findings show that Florida's repeal of its mandatory motorcycle helmet use law did not increase the serious injury or fatality rates, we conclude that policy makers should probably consider revising or repealing these types of laws." Research published in 2007 concluded: "There was a significant rise in motorcycle fatalities after Florida's helmet law repeal, which appears to be associated with an increase in the number of motorcycle riders. Injury prevention efforts focusing on factors other than helmet use should be developed in light of continuing repeal of universal motorcycle helmet laws across the nation." Pennsylvania repealed its mandatory motorcycle helmet law in 2003. It's worth considering the injury rate since then (PDF 40kb). Twice as many motorcycle registrations after US helmet laws repealed (PDF 28kb) But footballers wear helmets, so they must be good! Wrong. Click here to see why. Read in the Montreal Gazette (February 18 2008) why a coroner has recommended that helmets should not be compulsory for skiiers in Quebec. There is ample evidence that helmets do not reduce death and injury levels among skiers but instead increase skier accident/injury risk because they ski faster with a helmet on, similar to risk compensation among helmeted cyclists. Alternatively, you can research The Science Behind Helmets or read the opinion at www.ski-injury.com. Fifteen States and 56 localities in America have enacted some form of bicycle helmet legislation, but none for adults. Bicycle helmet use has soared in America over the past 10 years, both voluntarily and through compulsion. As reported in late 2009, Bicycle Injuries in U.S. Becoming More Severe. A telephone survey of adults in Western Australia found a figure equivalent to 64% of current adult cyclists would ride more if not legally required to wear a helmet. Extracts from the report Bicycle Crashes and Injuries in Western Australia (March 1998) relating to the study period of 1987-1996, a reasonable balance of pre and post legislation: "The number of hospitalised cyclists has shown no clear trend over the period." "Cyclist admissions as a proportion of all road crash casualties admitted to hospital have shown no clear trend, varying between 12% and 16%." "The number of cyclists admitted to hospital per 100,000 cyclists has fluctuated around 90 over the 10 year period" "Sixty eight percent of cyclists admitted to hospital were less than 17 years old..." "The percentage distribution of injuries by severity levels remained more or less constant over the 10 year period." "Injuries to the upper extremities has shown an almost steady increase from 118 (17%) in 1988 to 223 (31%) in 1996." "The total number of recorded injuries to cyclists increased from 590 in 1987 to 1,223 in 1996. This averages one injury per cyclist in 1987 (excluding cyclists admitted for observation who had no recorded injury) and 1.7 per cyclist in 1996. This increase most likely reflects better coding of injuries in hospitals." "The number of bicycle crashes reported to the police in Western Australia decreased from 1,011 in 1987 to 718 in 1996. Over this period, the share of bicycle crashes as a percentage of all reported crashes decreased from 2.5% to 1.7%." "The number of cyclists recorded as being hospitalised in the police data was 23% of the number actually admitted to hospital over this period." Home Page
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