Cyclists - Compulsory Helmet wearing debate

Noticed this has come up again - has been on going for many years.

My view is this - rather than make it law for cyclists to wear helmets - teach drivers to spot them and be aware of them.

I also agree with teaching some cyclists to obey the highway code - the majority do.

Making helmets compulsory merely puts the burden of safety squarely into the hands of the cyclists - that's not good enough - no where near good enough.


I wear a helmet voluntarily - fully in the knowledge that it only has a slight chance of saving me if I'm hit by a car - if I'm hit by a car and seriously hurt but not wearing a helmet, then my chances of a fair outcome are affected by my not wearing a helmet if this becomes law. How is that right?

A third party can knock me off my bike, possibly cripple me, but any litigation is blurred by my not wearing a helmet - not on the [glow=red,2,300]FACT[/glow] that I would be unhurt were it not for their actions, not the [glow=red,2,300]FACT[/glow] that their crap driving is at fault.

Madness.

 

Sorry, but my mentality is similar to an Ozzy guy I heard once:

'Check this guy out wearin' a helmet on his little pushbike'.......pause........pause.......'what a puffta!'.

Of course it's best to be safe than sorry, but I went 10 years riding pushbikes every day as a kid until 1985 and never smashed my head in once, despite having loads of accidents. The way I see it, you can never go so fast as to do yourself major damage. I'm quite happy to carry on that way now. Neither have I ever heard of someone's life which could have probably been saved if he had been riding his pushbike with a helmet on. It's not everyday news, is it, so it can't be that much of a risk. And most people I see wearing them haven't got the straps tied up anyway. Fat lot of good that'll do! Anyway, if we were all so keen about safety, none of us would be driving old VW buses now would we?

 

NOT compulsory....it should the the choice of the rider....this country is about the frredon to choose. i choose not to.
its been debated loads...cycle lobby gorups cannot even agree them selfs.
in all cases...you could not police it...EVER!!
you cannot even get people to have lights or brakes on a bike....you cant even get people to get insurance for a car or tax....AND THAT IS A LAW!
its a no from me

 

Personal choice.... As bikes are unlicensed and unregulated there is no other option. Helmets on Motorcycles and Seatbelts in cars seem to have worked but you will always get the beurocrats getting stuck in once you regulate. M/cyles are a good example wher if it hadnt been fought against they would all be dressed of like inflatable dayglow Derecks festooned with every airbag and crashbar imaginable.

I felt it was totally innapropriate to ask Bradley Wiggins to comment on the cyclists death and he may regret what he said but he was put on the spot and that was crappy journalism. I will be checking to make sure he wears a full face lid and leathers on his scooter!

 

I wear a helmet, out of choice, mainly because my old GCSE maths teacher was killed in a cycling accident that would not have been fatal if he'd worn a helmet.

I think there are a number of things that need to be sorted out re cyclists. For it to become a viable means of commuting, there needs to be better facilities at workplaces. The attitude of drivers towards cyclists needs to improve, and cyclists need to stop playing fast and loose with the rules if the road, e.g. NOT jumping red lights. Its dangerous, and will help to improve the attitude of drivers towards you if you don't do ut. I've never jumped a red light on my bike.

 

Some and I stress some of the cyclists that dodge through the traffic in London would not be saved by a crash helmet or body armour....its all down to perceived risk I guess or a strong religious belief. :

 

Come on slow coaches pedal a bit harder .... not going fast enough to hurt yourself then not trying

Quite often 'going down hill' get up to speeds in excess of 30 mph on the road bike and occasionally on one hill around the 40 mph certainy fast enough to cause some serious damage.

I wear a helmet out of choice and having cracked two right through the middle ;D bad enough to end up in A&E hence encourage others to do same ... so wouldnt bother me if compulsory or not )

 

I think what I am trying to say is fix the whole issue, not just part of it.

Far more cyclists are killed by the fault of drivers than remotely the fault of the cyclist - fix the whole thing!

 

we had similar disscuion today at work about road legal quad bikes and we decided it s as simple as this it up to you
if you wear a helmet etc or not but the at the end of the day regardless of fault if you go up against car etc you will lose fact
so its it a no brainer really init

 

I don't think it should be compulsory......but why wouldn't you wear one? Yes it's not gonna save you if you are hit by some numpty doing 70mph, but then nothing will. It may well save you from a more serious injury in lesser accidents.

It's the same for horse riders. It's not compulsory to wear a safety hat, but common sense says you should. I knew a guy years ago thought it was uncool to wear the strap on his riding hat. Took his horse over a jump, the horse tripped, he came off and so did his hat. He died from head injuries. He may well have survived if he had his hat on properly.

You can't stop all accidents, but you can lessen their severity.

I do also agree that motorists should have more training re awareness for cyclists (and horses).

 

dont wear a helmet, we need more organ donors

 

i agree it should be choice, i also agree that drivers and cyclists need to be more aware of each other and NOT jump lights (bad experience of this one).

wearing a helmet *may* save you life in a few accidents types - but it only takes one. It is not a shield of steel nor magic cape which will protect you from everything. there's also research to suggest it's potentially more dangerous (due to drivers perceptions) here >> http://www.bath.ac.uk/news/articles/archive/overtaking110906.html

but, until the infrastructure is dramatically changed to accommodate cars AND cyclists there will always be fatal accidents (helmet or not) cos cyclists are much squishier than cars.

 

make them wear leathers too in the middle of summer. see how they like it.

give em more space, more time and be patient. Its only a second or two. helmets? nah. bikes need to be flexible and easy to use. carting a lid around all day might put people off. i rode bikes all day long, everywhere as a kid. doin jumps wheelies etc. different thing though riding in the city. you'd be daft not to really. let people use their common sense. they do have it. sometimes. mostly....there will always be exceptions...thats what the darwin awards are for.

 

I wear one but that's my choice. I think if someone doesn't want to then that us up to them.

And how the hell are they going to enforce this?? Cycles are not licensed. Is this just the tip of the iceberg into road tax and insurance for push bikes??

 

Got knocked off by a car last year. Fortunately only suffered a broken collarbone and some scrapes. My helmet shattered when I hit the ground. Had I not been wearing it I would likely have suffered a fractured skull, or worse. I sometimes didn't wear a helmet, particularly in hot weather, but you won't catch me cycling without one now.

 

I wear one, but only because i'm Captain Paranoia, in reality i'd guess the number of lives they'd save would be small, particularly because most people don't do them up tight enough. To paraphrase birdy, it's a slippery slope down to licence plates and insurance and that takes away from the freedom of cycling and the ease of access into it at a time when it looks to be becoming more popular.
I think more important is the fact that this sort of arguement gets used as an excuse to beat cyclists with, they don't wear helmets and some of them jump red lights, therefore they're partly culpable when they get knocked off, when in fact what we need in this country is a fundamental change in our attitude to cyclists and road safety.
This latest debate has come about because of this poor man who got knocked off outside the olympic stadium, in his case a helmet would have made no diffrence because his body got run over.
Incidently, did anyone else see that account by the eyewitness who tried to help him? It was on a forum and he posted about it as therapy i guess, but later took it down when he realised how many people were reading and out of respect for the mans family. He crawled under the bus while the guy was in his last moments of life so he didn't have to die alone, he could see the fear in his eyes, so he held his hand and spoke to him as passed away. Very moving, i'm not sure i could do that.

 

when cycling in France everyone almost had a helmet ,decided to buy one and I am glad I did ,taking the dogs out on a evening and because there is no traffic I go naked... ;D

cyclists are treated with respect here.. 8)