Bicycle Helmet
Why is it against the law (in Australia) to not wear a bicycle helmet when riding?
Does the same law apply where you are?
haha nice point on natural selection. i think something like wearing a helemt should be personal choice.
Why don’t we just lock ourselves inside and never leave home? look how many pedestrians die from being hit on the side walk ?
theres no evidence to show that cycling is more dangerous than walking or running.
Because by displaying the good taste to live in Australia demonstrates qualities that are worth preserving.
Anyway this is how it happened.
During the late eighties the Australian Federal Government put pressure on the states to standardise a whole range of traffic laws this included things like; facilitating the interstate demerit point drivers licensing system, the .05 Blood Alcohol limit, speed limits and compulsory bicycle helmet laws.
The pressure was the withholding of federal road funding unless these changes were implemented by a certain date.
Prior to these changes bicycle related deaths in Australia averaged in the order of 80-100 per year. After the changes they dropped to 35-40 per year and have remain fairly steady at this level since then. (Footnote: Australia has about 10% the population of the U.S., which in 2006 had a death rate of 771).
Australia was the first country in the world to introduce mandatory helmet rules and due largely to these figures was closely followed by New Zealand.
Then entered the very vocal Anti helmet lobby. Using statistics mostly obtained from Western Australia (Australian state with the smallest population density) they were able to put together a convincing enough case that helmets were not that effective. They went on to credit most of the improvements to other changes and blaming mandatory helmet laws for massive drops in bicycle movements. This pretty much killed off introduction in many other countries.
In the state I live the helmet laws were introduced over several years. There was a long period of voluntary compliance followed by a period with a fine or purchase option. (You could pay the fine or buy a helmet). Even now (15 years later) the laws are not policed strictly. My observation was that it only deterred the once in a very long while cyclist.
If you happen to be unfortunate enough to require the services of the emergency department or indeed the coroner’s office, then you can be sure that data will be collected. Trama registers and coroner’s reports are then compiled. Usually these reports include information like head injuries and if a helmet was worn. This is best be summed up by an excerpt from this article compiled from coroner’s reports.
http://www.australiancyclist.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=2822
“Helmet use was also identified as a contributing factor to cycling deaths with about one-third of cyclists wearing a helmet dying of head injuries, while about half of those not wearing a helmet died of head injuries. Despite the oft-repeated and mostly unsubstantiated claims that mandatory helmet use is associated with a loss of civil liberties and decreases bicycle usage, there is now clear and consistent evidence that helmets reduce the incidence and severity of head and neck injuries.”
While I respect the fact that there are people whose greatest contribution to the human species, would be to remove themselves from the gene pool. I would prefer that they didn’t do this, community service, whilst cycling. It deters others from taking the up activity. There are simply not enough cyclist as it is.
I fully agree with the anti helmet lobby when they say safety is improved with more cyclists and better education. I also agree that the health benefits far out weigh the risks of riding without a helmet. I’ll probably also agree with them that there are less children cycling these days. The cause probably has more to do with fear of abduction and paedophilia, than bike helmets though. (There are a lot less children walking these days also)
Try this very long link for more info on helmet laws throughout the world. (And heaps of other info)
http://www.helmets.org/mandator.htm
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P.s. Probably need to clarify that Western Australia is the forth largest state in population, but by far the largest in area. Hence lowest population density.
The point being that it has a large ratio of rural to city cyclists. Therefore a higher ratio of highway speed motor vehicle v bicycle accidents. Helmets are not as effective in highway speed accidents.
