Wearing cycle helmets should be a choice, cycling advocates say

Wednesday, 21 March 2018

Jacqui Irwin of the community group Bicycle Nelson Bays wants the choice to be in the hands of any rider over the age of 18.

To wear a helmet, or not to wear a helmet; it's the choice many cyclists in the Nelson region want, as figures show thousands are flouting the law.

Cyclists across the top of the South Island were at the front of the pack for fines issued for failing to wear a helmet between 2013 - 2017, figures released under the Official Information Act showed.

Tasman and five other police districts clocked up about 3000 fines, behind Canterbury on 8498.

Despite bicycle helmets being made mandatory in New Zealand in 1994, one in ten Kiwis ignored the law, according to the cycling group Choice Biking, which led a protest in Wellington on Saturday calling for reform.

Lobby group Cycling Action are calling for cyclists' helmets to be made non-compulsory.

* Renewed push for review of cycle helmet law

* Not wearing a helmet is unconscionable

* Helmet law unfairly targets cyclists, say bike advocates**

Jacqui Irwin's brother-in-law died after being hit by a car at night at an intersection in Wellington.

He was wearing reflective gear and a helmet, and the driver was found to be at fault, she said.

'The place where we actually need to make progress is in not having those collisions.'

'Expecting cyclists to put on high viz and helmets is victim blaming, when the lions share of the safety actually rests with car driver attitudes,' said Irwin, who is a member of the Bicycle Nelson Bays cycle advocacy group.

Rebecca Oaten, aka the Helmet Lady who campaigned to make cycle helmets compulsory in New Zealand, cuddles her son Aaron in 1992, six years after he was injured. Aaron died on August 14, 2010, aged 37.

She believed a combination of 'minor barriers' were behind a 'significant' drop in people cycling once the helmet law came in.

'Maybe it's the expense, it's the hassle, and 'you look like a dork' that sort of thing … I found it surprising that the threat of helmet hair put people off.'

Irwin personally believed people over 18 should have the choice of whether to wear a helmet.

'The vast majority of the time, particularly if you're on the cycle way, you're perfectly safe. The thing that you don't want to happen is for cars to impact with someone on a bike, because obviously a cycle helmet won't save them.'

Wellington cyclist Dan Mikkelson is among those supporting the move to ride without helmets.

Brain Injury Association Nelson pointed to research in the UK that 'confirmed' helmet use was protective against brain injury in general.

'Our focus is on reducing brain injury so we certainly would not be supporting a reduction in helmet wearing,' liaison officer, Fiona Price said.

Price acknowledged other research in the UK, where cycle helmets are optional, which discussed the danger that buying a helmet could encourage a false feeling among parents that they had fulfilled their responsibility for their child's safety.

She also recognised the arguments that improving road cycling networks and enforcing speed limits, instead of mandatary helmet use, would increase safety while encouraging people to cycle.

'I guess they're not really borne out by the fact that people do fall off their bikes, and brain injuries occur so easily in those situations.'

Critics of the helmet law also point out that head injuries are a common cause of death among car drivers and pedestrians, but that those people are not asked to wear helmets.

'You could compare it to wearing seatbelts in cars, there was a lot of controversy around that when seatbelts first came out, I think it's well established that you are much safer wearing a seatbelt and the same goes for wearing a cycle helmet,' Price said.