Finally I have been driven to add my sixpence worth on this old
nutshell . Reading the Cycleclips 'Putting the lid on helmet laws' has done it.
I shall itemize where I am coming from.
1. I don't think that wearing a cycle helmet should be compulsory.
2. I am certain they have saved many a cyclists from a more serious head injury, even death when worn correctly.
3. I do believe that more research should go into making them even safer and more particularly safeguards by design to ensure that they 'sit' on the users head properly. I have seen to many children in particular and Denise Lewis (at the front of a charity ride recently) with the helmet perched above their foreheads ready for the broken neck when they hit something and the helmet slides back rapidly.
4. I fully support the concept that the CTC must prioritize the the use of the bike for health and clean transport motives.
5. I don't accept that the CTC must either be in favor of making the use of cycle helmets a legal requirement or must somehow not be willing to promote helmet use.
6. I stand through personal experience totally convinced that helmets are potentially both on injury and life saver. Statistics don't stand up, to say that there has been no decrease in head injuries as a result of helmet use is frankly 'politician speak' ie. suits the argument. We have a growing number of cyclists 'thank goodness' but with that comes an increase in injuries 'pure mathematics' unfortunately we can't have a comparison of number of injuries if we were all not wearing helmets.
7. I speak as someone who was mown down whilst cycling by a hit and run driver last March and potentially 'left for dead' by the driver and it would be fair to say had it not been for me wearing a
good fitting cycle helmet I might well have been and unable to make this appeal now.
8. I firmly believe that the CTC should indeed promote the use of the bicycle with riders wearing a helmet but without the need for legislation because the health benefit to the nation of getting bums on saddles is paramount. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't promote helmet use especially the CTC.
9. Finally no way is
no protection better than some (arms, collar bones, legs, ribs etc mend, I know been there but the brain is not quite so straight forward).
Where we do need more legislation is around HGV'S and visability issues.

ps. I spoke to the cycling author William Fotheringham a few years back at a book signing after the Autumn Epic Sportive regards his book 'fallen angel' which he signed for me and amongst other things I mentioned about Serse Coppi, Fausto's younger brother who also raced and crashed in a sprint in the Giro del Piemonte and died of a cerebral haemorrhage. I asked Will as he had spent 3 years researching for the book whether in his opinion would Serse have lived if he was wearing a helmet, Will's answer was without hesitation "probably".
