Helmets and Highway Code

[purplesue]

Whilst we have been busy arguing the toss, looks likr the government have made their mind up anyway - see first line under section 59: Cyclists must wear a helmet. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTr ... /DG_069837

So, is this now the law?

PurpleSue

[Mick F]

Emphatic NO.

Note the wording: SHOULD. ie it is advised.

The points of law are marked as MUST. ie the law's demands.

BTW, welcome to the forum!

[pwward]

It says 'should' as opposed to 'must'. There is no helmet law. A legal opinion from a QC about this is here.

http://www.2tg.co.uk/assets/docs/articl ... 7_3_12.pdf

[pjclinch]

Follow this up with your MP and if my experience was anything to go by escalation to DfT then gets you a copy of the Towner report which is a meta-analysis of cycle helmet research concluding they help. Sadly the case that it's based on papers referenced from Cochrane which has since been criticised heavily (and in peer review IIRC) for publication bias.

These days they might throw in PPR 446 ("The potential for cycle helmets to prevent injury - A review of the evidence") which is a more recent independent piece of work commissioned on the matter, but is hardly without its issues (CTC's Roger Geffen has pointed out admissions within the paper that they use unfounded assumptions of helmet efficacy, and in any case the conclusions ignore contexts of actual risk).

So yes, it says you should, but that is based on outdated and unsound evidence.

Pete.

[SilverBadge]

Whilst we have been busy arguing the toss, looks likr the government have made their mind up anyway - see first line under section 59: Cyclists must wear a helmet. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTr ... /DG_069837

So, is this now the law?

PurpleSue

No, it's just several pieces of simplistic advice that lawyers will attempt to use to reduce the liabilities of the guilty. There is a comment box at the bottom but I guess they won't do much with anything they receive. It has long been on my list of things to do to contact the Driving Standards Agency and see why there is no helmet advice for motorists (again, should . . . . ) in the Highway Code when it is clear DfT is aware that head injuries are a major cause of motorist fatalities - they even go as far as to note that the introduction of more padding between head and vehicle interior would help.

[Cunobelin]

Slighty OT...

Friend of mine was told that he and his son should wear helmets when riding bikes to School due to the dangers of Head Injury

Write and asked the headmaster for a breakdown of the type injuries sustained by the children in the last two years..... then pointed out that there was only one cyclist head injury and there were over sixty playground head injuries....would they therefore be applying this "Common Sense" rule to the playground. If not then coulc he see the risk assessments for the two activities.

They still don't wear helmets and the matter seems to have been dropped