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Law on cycle helmets 'would save lives'



 
 
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  #1  
Old May 14th 04, 12:18 PM
Mucco
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Default 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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  #2  
Old May 14th 04, 12:57 PM
Tony Raven
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Default 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


  #3  
Old May 14th 04, 01:17 PM
David Hansen
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Default 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.
  #4  
Old May 14th 04, 03:33 PM
Just zis Guy, you know?
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Default 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


  #5  
Old May 14th 04, 04:14 PM
Brendan Halpin
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Default 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
  #6  
Old May 14th 04, 06:26 PM
David Hansen
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Default 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.
  #7  
Old May 15th 04, 01:55 PM
Frank X
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Default 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.


  #9  
Old May 16th 04, 08:00 AM
Just zis Guy, you know?
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Default 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
  #10  
Old May 17th 04, 10:28 AM
Brendan Halpin
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Default 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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