Wrong message on cycle safety
From: Dr Stuart Reid
Consultant in Emergency Medicine, Northern General Hospital Accident and Emergency Department
Whilst I applaud the content of your ‘Pedal Power’ front page article last week, I find myself frustrated that the Pedal Ready trainer and her trainee are pictured without wearing cycle helmets.
Myself and many of my colleagues are daily cycle commuters and are constantly aware to the potential dangers of cycling, both on our journey to and from work, as well as often seeing several cyclists a day with injuries after accidents.
The evidence for the use of cycle helmets is compelling, as shown in a high quality literature review from 1999 showing a 63-88% decrease in risk of head, brain and severe brain injury in those wearing helmets.
Modern helmets are cheap, comfortable, lightweight and look good. I hope that part of the Pedal Ready training course includes this most basic piece of road safety advice and I would strongly suggest that all readers undertaking any form of cycling should wear a helmet at all times.
From: Dr Neil Taylor
Sheffield S17
Your front page photograph of last week defies belief. What were you and the smiling professional instructor thinking of - the helmetless trainee’s safety and that of other road users? Let’s not quibble about the apparent lack of lights on what appears to be a sunny summer’s day. Is the road to hell being pedalled with good intentions?
Indeed, perhaps your offering should be submitted for a national poster campaign for road safety - How Not To Do It.
From: Alan York
Dore, S17
We are all in favour of more people using their bikes and I have joined them in my late 70s, but my family and particularly the grandchildren insisted I should wear a helmet instead of my comfortable cap for safety reasons.
Yet you chose to put on your front page a cycle trainer and her pupil riding in the street WITHOUT any helmets. What sort of example is this to the young riders, let alone the older ones?
It is no excuse to report that they were riding in a quiet road. We tell the grandchildren that death on four wheels is always just around the corner.
From: Peter Mara
Crookesmoor Road, S10
As a regular cyclist - mtb,road and commuting as well as being a motorcyclist - I was quite amazed with the photograph accompanying your lead article in last week’s Telegraph.
I think the rise in cycling is great and whilst realising that helmets are not compulsory for cyclists I couldn’t believe my eyes. There was a Pedal Ready trainer with a trainee, neither wearing helmets.
Just not good enough, no matter where you are riding, and please, no lame excuses from Pedal Ready.
Having had two serious accidents rendering me with concussion I can avow for the need to wear helmets.
Pedal Ready you missed an opportunity for positive responses.
lA spokesman for Pedal Read Development said: “The promotion of cycling helmets makes many people think cycling without one is dangerous or irresponsible, but the evidence does not support this.
“We suggest people consider the pros and cons of helmet wearing and make up their own minds: in certain circumstances, a properly fitted helmet may protect a cyclist from a serious head injury if they fall from their bike up to about 12 mph.
However, a helmet increases the surface area liable to impact and tends to distort an assumption of protection for both passing drivers and cyclists.
Badly fitting helmets increase the risk of rotational injury or strangulation.
“Helmets are probably a good idea for children (for whom head injuries while cycling are mostly caused by falls).
But a problem with helmets is that some see them as the only real issue to think about, and don’t check brakes, fix poorly adjusted bikes or take up training that could avoid potential difficulties in the first place.
Cycling is not dangerous: there are more head injuries amongst pedestrians and car passengers, so some say it would be more effective to promote helmet wearing to these groups instead!
For more information see: www.cyclehelmets.org
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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Comments
There are 5 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
jezr
Thursday, March 8, 2012 at 08:52 AMThe debate on the usefulness of a helmet, will continue until it becomes law to wear one, which I'm sure will ultimately happen. However at present it is not illegal not to wear one, and in doing so endangers no one except the individual. I switch between wearing and not wearing a helmet and without a doubt cars give me more room when the consequences of them knocking me off is highlighted by being able to see my skull. Trying to offset the danger of a tonne of steel by a inch of polystyrene, does sound a little ridiculous, If we were all more courteous on the road the 2500 road deaths would reduce far more than the effect of cycle helmets.
keepontriking
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 11:21 PMmtbrider cites the requirements for helmets for professional cycle racing as a reason why all cyclists should use them. As flameproof suits and full face helmets are required in F1, I must assume heshe wears such protection whenever he travels in a car and will be lobbying for others to do so too. There is no evidence to show that helmets improve safety or reduce the number of accidents, though they may give some limited protection in certain low impact falls. Equally they may actually create other issues such as drivers taking less care around cyclists who wear them, as shown by some studies. The decision must be left with the rider. Far better to put effort and resources into removing the causes of the danger instead of something that since its introduction has not had any noticeable affect on overall road safety. Cycling Instructor.
mtbrider
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 10:28 PMI am disappointed by the negative response from Pedal Ready and others to Dr Reid's original letter. The earlier comments about cycle helmet usage research are correct to question some of the benefits of helmet usage, but there are so many factors involved that it is impossible to give a balanced view in such a short statement. Wearing a helmet may not make cycling safer per se, but it does offer protection against certain types of head injury. Having had a few crashes commuting and mountain biking in the past 20 years that involved a head impact (all of which were above 12mph), I am sold on the benefit of wearing a helmet. The UCI, which governs competitive cycling, is also clear on the use of helmets in all disciplines of the sport. Riders are required to wear a helmet, which was largely brought about by the death of Kazakh rider Andrei Kivilev in the second stage of Paris-Nice in 2003 after sustaining head injuries in a crash. Wearing a helmet will not prevent accidents involving cyclists, or make cycling safer, but riders need to decide if they're prepared to hit their head on the roadtrack with or without a helmet for protection. The statement from Pedal Ready is very unbalanced, and appears to promote the non-use of cycle helmets - very misguided IMO.
burtthebike@blueyonder.co.uk
Friday, January 13, 2012 at 07:36 PMDr Reid is seriously misinformed, and I would have expected someone so eager to use their position to promote something to be rather more sure of their facts before they did so. The good doctor says "The evidence for the use of cycle helmets is compelling, as shown in a high quality literature review from 1999 showing a 63-88% decrease in risk of head, brain and severe brain injury in those wearing helmets." I can only assume that the review he refers to is that done by the BMA in 1999, but that was 13 years ago, and any research which repeats the completely disproved figures is hardly "high quality". There is much more reliable evidence available today, which shows either no benefit, or an increase in risk with helmet wearing. Nowhere with a helmet law or massive rise in helmet wearing because of propaganda campaigns can show any reduction in risk to cyclists. Check out cyclehelmets.org for a few facts rather than Dr Reids out of date misconceptions. The spokesman for the trainers was absolutely right, and cycling is as safe, or dangerous, as walking, so why aren't all the people who are outraged at cyclists not wearing a helmet demanding that walkers wear them too? The heatlh benefits of cycling are absolutely massive, and regular cyclists are live longer, and are fitter and healthier than the general public. How can something likely to make you live lnoger be dangerous? The only effect of helmet laws and promotion is to reduce the number of cyclists, so lots of people lose the health benefits, and therefore, the overall effects of helmet laws and promotion is a massive reduction in the public health. Is this really what the good doctor intends? If all these people who are so outraged at a picture of cyclists not wearing helmets were to channel their anger at something which actually works, like slowing down motor vehicles, we'd all be a lot safer, pedestrians, motorcyclists, drivers and cyclists. Stop wasting your time on something proven not to work and do something that will really make a difference.
keepontriking
Friday, January 13, 2012 at 12:50 PMDr Reid - how many head injuries do you see from motor crashes? I do hope you wear one when driving. You do don't you? Helmets - and worse, comments like yours - send all the wrong messages. Recently a child turned up on a cycle training course with no brakes - his Dad had removed them because "they made a noise". On further questioning the Dad responded with "It's alright he has a helmet" and expected his child to be allowed on the road. your comments Dr Reid just reinforce these incorrect perceptions taht helmets improve safety. They don't. It is how road users interact and behave that does that. I speak as an experienced cycling instructor who daily sees this utter reliance on a piece of plastic as if it is a rabbits foot. Comments like yours scare me. You should be ashamed.
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