BICYCLE HELMET
RESEARCH
FOUNDATION
cyclehelmets.org
Home page
Main topics
News Headlines
Frequently asked Questions
For Policy Makers
Research evidence
Misleading claims
Helmet laws
Analysis
Search Engine
Australia
Canada
New Zealand
UK
USA
Other countries
Full index
Links
BHRF
Policy statement
The Case for Not Wearing a Bike Helmet
Helmets have been mandatory in the pro peloton for well over a decade. Where’s the data that it’s helping?
read more ...
Bicycle Network campaigns for helmet law reform
Australia's Bicycle Network has come out in favour of reforming Australia's mandatory bicycle helmet law.
read more ...
Cycling Tips: Commentary
Commentary: Why I stopped wearing a bike helmet
by Peter Flax
read more ...
Bicycling Magazine
It’s Okay If You Don’t Wear a Bike Helmet
read more ...
Carlton Reid, transport writer
I Do Not Wear A Bicycle Helmet
read more ...
More on Why We Shouldn't Have Mandatory Helmet Laws
Over on VOX, Joseph Stromberg rounds up the studies about bike helmets and concludes that if you want to get more people to ride bikes, then you shoul
read more ...
Give Kids Bikes, Not Helmets
Why helmet giveaways are an act of surrender
read more ...
Enough with the Smashed Watermelons! Helmet Mania Is Scaring Kids Away from Biking
Free Range Kids
read more ...
An appeal court in New South Wales, Australia, has overturned the conviction of cyclist Sue Abbott, who was prosecuted for not wearing a cycle helmet.
Mrs Abbott’s objections were based on her belief that wearing a helmet increases the risk of brain damage and that forcing her to wear one is a breach of her civil liberties. She argued that there was no clear evidence of their benefit and that if she fell from her bike while wearing a helmet she would be at greater risk of brain damage from diffuse axonal injury than if she fell on her bare head. She told the court a helmet could "increase angular acceleration which an oblique impulse imparts to the head, increasing the risk of damage to the brain, especially diffuse axonal injury". In other words, the helmet grips the road, twisting the head more quickly than if the skull were unprotected.
Other evidence cited a report from the National Health and Medical Research Council that warns "the wearing of helmets may result in greater rotational forces and increased diffuse brain injury".
District Court Judge Roy Ellis quashed her conviction, although he still found her offence proven.
"Having read all the material, I think I would fall down on your side of the ledger," he told Mrs Abbott. "I frankly don’t think there is anything advantageous and there may well be a disadvantage in situations to have a helmet - and it seems to me that it’s one of those areas where it ought to be a matter of choice."
Sat 4 Sep 2010