Headway position statement: Cycle helmets
18 October 2011
Headway - the brain injury association believes that all cyclists should wear helmets, particularly vulnerable road users such as children who do not possess the same level of competency or experience as adults.
The charity supports calls to make cycle helmets compulsory while also calling for a range of additional measures to improve cyclists' safety, including more dedicated cycle lanes and educational campaigns aimed at both cyclists and motorists.
Headway's position is in line with its stated objective:
To initiate activities and campaigns to reduce the incidence of brain injury.
The evidence is clear: cycle helmets can save lives and help prevent lifelong disability. This fact has been proven by numerous peer-reviewed, published scientific studies and is shared by well-respected professional bodies including the British Medical Association, the Association of Paediatric Emergency Medicine, the Bicycle Helmet Initiative Trust and numerous doctors and neurosurgeons across the UK.
The most reliable research comes from Cochrane Reviews, which are based on the best available information about healthcare interventions. They explore the evidence for and against the effectiveness and appropriateness of treatments in specific circumstances. A Cochrane review considering five case-control studies from the UK, Australia and the USA illustrates a large and consistent protective effect from cycle helmets, reducing the risk of head and brain injury by 65 to 88 per cent and injury to the upper and mid face by 65 per cent1 .
In November 2009, the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) published a review of all the evidence regarding cycle helmets. The report, commissioned by the Department for Transport, concludes that helmets are indeed effective at preventing head and brain injuries.
At Headway, we know the devastating effects a brain injury can have and how easy it can be to damage the brain. A number of Headway service users sustained their injuries through cycling accidents and now face spending the rest of their lives wishing they'd chosen to wear a helmet. To those people, statistics are meaningless; of far greater value is the common sense notion that wearing a helmet will help protect one's fragile skull.
1 Thompson D. C., Rivara F. P. & Thompson R. S. (1999), Helmets for preventing head and facial injuries in bicycling. Cochrane database of systematic reviews 1999, Issue 4, CD001855