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Law on cycle helmets 'would save lives'
It's contagious!
From today's Irish Independent: http://www.unison.ie/irish_independe...issue_id=10862 (registration required) A LAW enforcing cyclists to wear safety helmets would save lives, especially childrens, the National Safety Council said yesterday. Up to 96pc of child cyclists killed or injured were not wearing helmets. The council called for helmets to be made mandatory. More than 2,000 cyclists were killed or injured between 1998 and 2002. Seventeen deaths were children under 15 and 329 children were injured. "Most parents and children don't realise just how fragile the brain is and that a fall from as little as two feet can cause a skull fracture. That's why it's important to always wear a safety helmet when cycling," said council chairman, Eddie Shaw. The state of Victoria in Australia introduced a bike helmet law in 1990 which had been credited with cutting the number of cyclists killed or admitted to hospital after sustaining a head injury by 48pc. "Given such success rates abroad the NSC feels it is worth giving serious consideration to the introduction of a safety helmet law, particularly for children, in Ireland," Mr Shaw said. Dr Sean Walsh, consultant in A&E at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, said he came upon up to 70 admissions a year for cycle related injuries. Niall Doyle of the Irish Insurance Federation said motorised road users also had a part to play in ensuring the safety of cyclists on the roads. The NSC yesterday advised cyclists selecting a safety helmet that it was not a fashion statement but an essential, life-saving piece of equipment. Cyclists were advised to look for approved standard marks which included Snell - USA Standard; ANSI Z 904 - USA Standard; BS 6863 - British Standard and AS 2063 - Australian Standard. The council, launching a booklet, Cycle Safety, pointed out it was the law to have a bell on one's bike and to have working lights after dark. Treacy Hogan |
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Law on cycle helmets 'would save lives'
Mucco wrote:
Up to 96pc of child cyclists killed or injured were not wearing helmets. The council called for helmets to be made mandatory. 100% of child pedestrians killed or injured were not wearing helmets Tony |
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Law on cycle helmets 'would save lives'
On Fri, 14 May 2004 12:18:38 +0100 someone who may be "Mucco"
wrote this:- http://www.unison.ie/irish_independe...issue_id=10862 More than 2,000 cyclists were killed or injured between 1998 and 2002. Seventeen deaths were children under 15 and 329 children were injured. So, 4.25 children a year were killed. It doesn't say how many of them died of events that caused head injuries alone. Even if there was an invulnerability helmet that prevented any injury to the head in any circumstances we can't judge how many lives such a helmet might save. They are relying on the "if just one life is saved" fallacy. Dr Sean Walsh, consultant in A&E at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, said he came upon up to 70 admissions a year for cycle related injuries. All injuries to the head only? All injuries to those parts of a head that a helmet covers? How serious are these injuries? -- 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. |
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Law on cycle helmets 'would save lives'
Mucco wrote:
From today's Irish Independent: http://www.unison.ie/irish_independe...issue_id=10862 Reply: ================================================== ===================== I read with interest your presentation of the "pro" side of the helmet debate and look forward with great anticipation to the balancing piece which will surely follow. Will it, I wonder, draw on the recent analysis of English child hospital admissions showing that cycling is neither uniquely dangerous nor uniquely productive of head injuries? Will it include the fact that motor traffic accounts for virtually all cyclist fatalities, and for five times as many child pedestrian deaths? Will the piece point out that 100% of child pedestrians killed on Ireland's roads were not wearing helmets at the time? Or that helmets are not designed to resist motor vehicle impacts? Maybe it will make the excellent point that the most optimistic studies indicates that even a universally obeyed helmet law could not hope to reduce fatalities by more than 10% (i.e. 1/2 death per year in Eire). Surely it will acknowledge that while motor traffic accounts for around one in ten child injury admissions, it makes up half of all fatalities - and that only a small minority of the dead are cycling at the time - proving that it is motor traffic, not cycling, which is uniquely hazardous to children. Perhaps we will see in print again the conclusions of the British government that there is no known case where cyclist safety has improved with increasing helmet use (so much for the idea of an "essential" safety aid!). Maybe we will see the cost-benefit analyses conducted in Australia and New Zealand which show that mandatory helmet laws represent a net cost to the economy. Perhaps we will see the measured and sane view that compulsion would shorten more lives than it could ever hope to save, a view apparently shared by the British Medical Association, and every single cycling body of which I am aware, both in Ireland and in the UK. Or will you allow the helmeteers to continue to get away with pretending that all cyclist injuries are head injuries, that all head injuries are preventable by helmets, and that all head injuries are serious? Perhaps you will leave it to websites such as http://www.cyclehelmets.org and http://www.cycle-helmets.com to publish these and other facts, and allow the conspiracy of ignorance to continue to masquerade as common sense. I hope not. Guy |
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Law on cycle helmets 'would save lives'
"Just zis Guy, you know?" writes:
fatalities by more than 10% (i.e. 1/2 death per year in Eire). A tip: don't say Eire (or even Éire) -- it makes you come across as an old fogey. The term was used in English as the name of the state between 1937 and 1948, though it is still the Irish language name. More on topic, url:http://www.nsc.ie/whats_new/NewsExtra_Details.cfm?NewsExtraID=32&recordID=106& location=main leads to the National Safety Council's reading on the matter (four research papers, including Povey et al and a case-control study). If that URL doesn't survive, url:http://www.nsc.ie/whats_new/index.cfm might. Brendan -- Brendan Halpin, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, Ireland Tel: w +353-61-213147 f +353-61-202569 h +353-61-390476; Room F2-025 x 3147 http://www.ul.ie/sociology/brendan.halpin.html |
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Law on cycle helmets 'would save lives'
On 14 May 2004 16:14:05 +0100 someone who may be Brendan Halpin
wrote this:- A tip: don't say Eire (or even Éire) -- it makes you come across as an old fogey. That seems like a very sensible idea. Who wants to come across as an inexperienced teenager? -- 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. |
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Law on cycle helmets 'would save lives'
"Tony Raven" wrote in message ... Mucco wrote: Up to 96pc of child cyclists killed or injured were not wearing helmets. The council called for helmets to be made mandatory. 100% of child pedestrians killed or injured were not wearing helmets 87.5% of statistics are made up on the spot. |
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Law on cycle helmets 'would save lives'
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Law on cycle helmets 'would save lives'
On Sat, 15 May 2004 13:55:23 +0100, "Frank X"
wrote in message : 87.5% of statistics are made up on the spot. And 65% of helmet stats are made up at Washington University ;-) Guy -- May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting. http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk 88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University |
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Law on cycle helmets 'would save lives'
David Hansen writes:
On 14 May 2004 16:14:05 +0100 someone who may be Brendan Halpin wrote this:- A tip: don't say Eire (or even Éire) -- it makes you come across as an old fogey. That seems like a very sensible idea. Who wants to come across as an inexperienced teenager? The only thing worse than an old fogey is a young fogey. B -- Brendan Halpin, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, Ireland Tel: w +353-61-213147 f +353-61-202569 h +353-61-390476; Room F2-025 x 3147 http://www.ul.ie/sociology/brendan.halpin.html |
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