Not so many days ago, a person was seen riding his bicycle without wearing a helmet. This person went through a red light and a car hit him. Both the cyclist and the driver of the car died in that moment of the accident. This news is all over New Zealand at the moment and it has stirred up, yet again, the huge debate regarding the law requiring all cyclists to wear bike helmets.
This particular news story is just one of the many in the last couple of years related to bike accidents. When the NZ Herald sat at the same lights with cameras they found that some of the cyclists were wearing helmets while some were not, some even ran red lights!
Although helmets seem like a no-brainer to a lot of us, there is still a great divide as to whether a helmet is necessary or not. We might say that this gear is a great help in ensuring protection and safety, but some believe it’s the other way around. For instance, the medical journal BMJ created a poll back in 2011 regarding this matter, and results show that 68% oppose to mandatory helmet laws.
In addition to this, a recent Canadian study compared rates of cycling-related head injuries before and after they passed the helmet legislation. After the researchers analyzed the data from 1994 to 2008, they found out that helmet legislation did not significantly alter the overall rates of head injuries. But on the other hand, another study analyzed US cyclists who were severely injured or killed during the time of January 1999 to December 2009. The researchers compared the injury and death rates among cyclists age 16 and younger in states that have mandatory helmet laws to states that have none. They concluded that injury rates were about 20% lower in states with helmet laws.
These researches created a division all the more among cyclists. They have opposing ideas due to the fact that it is inherently difficult to measure whether the differences in injury rates are due to the helmet legislation or not. However, one thing is for sure. No one can argue that bike helmets can reduce injury. It is, after all, designed to be so. But while legislators of this law have nothing more than good intentions, or so we believe, the negative consequences outweigh the benefits of riding with a helmet. Making it mandatory for cyclists to wear a helmet can result to a decrease of riders. You can no longer ride your bike without wearing this gear; because otherwise, the police might fine you. Opponents also fear that these laws would portray the bicycling is a potentially dangerous activity for people when, in fact, it is not. It is a form of recreational activity known to have a lot of health benefits. But instead of highlighting the benefits of such laws like it should be, it is somehow scaring cyclists away.
Certainly, we cannot doubt the protection and safety that helmets give us. However, it is only most useful when it comes to low impact accidents as no helmet can protect us from large collisions. The only way to reduce any form of vehicular accidents is by looking at the bigger picture. This includes disciplining motorists of all vehicles, informing them about bike and traffic laws, providing bike lanes, and organizing street and road traffic. Wearing helmet can only do good when it comes to falling off your bike and hitting your head on the ground. Anything worse than this, you can only pray that you don’t get any head injuries.
At any rate, this is not to discourage you from wearing a helmet. It is still recommended of you to wear one especially when you’re riding your bike across the streets and along the highways where many vehicles are around. When it’s just a stroll on the park or a quick ride around the neighborhood, you may not wear your helmet. At the end of the day, this gear serves as your last line of protection even if it only gives you limited defense. You never know that it might actually save you in the event of an accident. But let’s be real, if we want to increase our safety and protection while we are riding our bikes, mandatory helmet laws can only get us a few steps ahead. In reality, we will need more than just bike helmets to get us completely guarded.
Thanks to Amy for writing this Article.
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