Helmet law would stop people cycling

National cyclists' organisation CTC has condemned pro-helmet campaigners who have at last admitted that they want to outlaw cyclists who ride without helmets.

At a recent dinner, Angie Lee, founder of the Bicycle Helmet Initiative Trust (BHIT), told the cycle trade website BikeBiz that she wanted a mandatory helmet law firstly for under-12s, then for 12–16-year-olds and later, perhaps, even adults.

CTC, the UK's largest cycling organisation, says a law making helmet wearing mandatory would significantly reduce health because many people would stop cycling altogether.

The BHIT has at last come clean and admitted that legislation is its aim. But helmet wearing is a significant deterrent and compulsion would stop thousands of people cycling. It would remove all the health benefits they gain from cycling and reduce the chances of reaching government targets for increasing the number of journeys by bike.

In countries with large numbers of cyclists, like the Netherlands, helmet-wearing is almost unheard of. Legislation is a sticking-plaster solution and ignores the cause of the wound. It is blaming the victim for the failure to improve road safety.

When helmets were made compulsory in Australia, New Zealand and parts of Canada and the USA, the number of cyclists fell considerably. Neither the incidence nor the severity of head injuries declined however, when the drop in the number of cyclists was taken into account.

The British Medical Association opposes moves to enforce helmet wearing believing that the health benefits from cycling outweigh the decline in health that would result if thousands of people stopped cycling regularly.

  • The government wants to increase cycling levels from two to eight per cent of journeys by 2012.
  • Cyclists account for less than one per cent of head injury admissions to hospital. There are 4.8 times more car occupants who die of head injuries than cyclists, 4.6 times more pedestrians and 1.5 times more motorcyclists (Thornhill et al, British Medical Journal, 2000; Mayer Hillman, Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, 1993).
  • The countries with the lowest risk of any injury when cycling are those where helmet use is minimal (eg the Netherlands). The most effective way to reduce the likelihood of injury when cycling is to increase the number of people who cycle (Wardlaw, M, Cycle Campaign Network, 2001, Leden et al, Accident Analysis and Prevention, 2000).
  • Helmet use in the UK has risen from close to zero to 16 per cent from 1985 to date but there has been no detectable change in trends for fatalities, serious injuries or the average severity of injury to cyclists (DfT, 2001).
  • Helmet laws caused cycling levels to drop by 30 per cent in Australia while head injuries fell by only 11 per cent. The injury risk for those who continue to cycle has risen and in some parts of Australia, injury rates are at an all time high (Australian Road Accident Prevention Research Unit, 1999).