On Sun, 08 Feb 2004 21:23:30 +0000 someone who may be "Just zis Guy,
you know?" wrote this:-
I was raking over the old Research Report 30 stuff writing a followup
(my questions to the DfT remian unanswered).
Funny you should mention that. Just this morning in another place
the following was posted.
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After some discussion via email with the Department for Transport,
they have issued corrections for errors published in 'Bicycle
Helmets - A review of their effectiveness: A critical review of the
Literature, Road Safety Research Report No 30'
Section 5, Post legislation, teenager wearing rate changed to 45%
from the 74% published.
Section 1, Head Injury, emergency admissions, changed from published
2.8% to 0.28%.
The incorrect 2.8% claim made cycling appear 10 more likely to
result in being admitted to hospital than the data would suggest.
One admission in 359 being a cyclist. 'Head injuries' sustained when
bicycling was the primary diagnosis in one in 1051 admissions.
The 74% claim made the helmet law in Victoria appear successful at
increasing helmet wearing rates. In fact the law resulted in 19,229
penalty notices being issued (in a state with about 4.4 million
population), discouraging cycling by over 40% for teenagers and
resulting in less than half of teenagers wearing helmets and this
should be considered. Children's safety was reduced but the reports
overlooks this aspects.
The report RSRR 30 has been in circulation for over a year, freely
available to the public, referred to in Parliament, quoted by Royal
Mail in support of their actions of trying to force postal workers
to wear helmets, resulting in one dismissal that is being challenged
for unfair dismissal.
Other parts of the RSRR 30 report are misleading. The DfT are
interested in providing reliable and accurate information and may
change other parts when they become aware of unreliable data and
comments, published in the report.
I will continue to discuss the misleading/unreliable aspects with
the DfT. Even if the report is fully corrected for misleading
aspects it will still be bias in overall presentation and should be
withdrawn to prevent further damage.
Additional information on helmets is available at
http://www.cyclehelmets.org
http://www.magma.ca/~ocbc
http://www.cycle-helmets.com
Sincerely Colin Clarke
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--
David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
I will always explain revoked keys, unless the UK government
prevents me using the RIP Act 2000.