The effectiveness of bicycle helmets

http://www.rospa.com/roadsafety/info/cycle_helmets.pdf

54 “Helmets for Preventing Head and Facial Injuries in Bicyclists (Cochrane
Review)� D C Thompson et al, Issue 1, 2003

This is a review of the validity and findings of five, previously published,
case-controlled
studies from different countries into the effectiveness of cycle
helmets.

The review found that all the studies provided consistent evidence that
wearing an approved cycle helmet significantly reduces the risk of head or
brain
injuries in a crash or collision. It concluded that overall, cycle helmets
decrease
the risk of head and brain injury by 65% to 88%, and decrease the risk of
facial
injury by 65% (but do not protect the lower face or jaw). The review also
stated
that helmets are effective for cyclists of all ages and in accidents
involving
collisions with motor vehicle as well as those which do not.

It is a feature of Cochrane Reviews that responses to the review from other
researchers are published along with the replies by the original authors.
This
review generated several responses that were critical of the review’s
findings,
mainly on the following grounds:

++ helmets are not designed to protect the brain from rotational injuries,
which
are the most serious type
++ helmet laws discourage cycling which is one reason for any apparent
reduction in head injuries and also means the health and environmental
benefits of cycling are lost
++ cyclists who wear helmets feel safe and so cycle in a less cautious
manner,
hence increasing their accident risk (risk compensation).

The authors disagreed with these arguments on the grounds that:

++ helmets do protect against the most common types of head and brain
injuries, and the research studies prove this
++ there is no scientific evidence that mandatory cycle helmet laws
discourage
cycling
++ there is no scientific evidence that cyclist who wear helmets take more
risks.

QUOTE:
You may remember that we reported at the start of March that 11 riders set
out from Greenwich on the World Cycle Race, attempting to break the
circumnavigation record for unsupported riders. They've been out there for
almost a month now so now's as good a time as any to catch up with their
progress and have a look at this nice video by Ian Homer of the Grand
Depart.

Kyle Hewitt, the first rider interviewed, never made it out of the country,
citing personal reasons and a change in circumstances for his decision to
cancel his challenge. Stephen Phillips is also down on the tracking website
as scratched, leaving eight men standing. So who's in the lead?

Well, some are going west and some east, so it's not immediately clear from
the map. But helpfully the race website has a handy ready reckoner of who's
travelled how far, and from the last update on 14 March we can see that it's
Mike Hall, heading east, who's leading the pack. He's managed to cover an
impressive 6,012km thus far, followed by Martin Walker who's about 1,000km
behind right now. It's 700km back to third placed Simon Hutchinson. Mike's
currently in India (as is Simon) whilst Martin's heading the other way round
the world and is currently in the deep south of the USA.

Assuming that Mike Hall can keep up the pace he's currently setting, he
looks on course to beat Vin Cox's unsupported and ratified time of 163 days,
6 hours and 58 minutes by almost a month. That's not currently the record,
though; Alan Bate is the incumbent with a time of just 106 days. Bate's
record, however, was set with the help of a support team, leading for calls
for the record to be split into separate standards for supported and
unsupported riders. All of the World Cycle Race participants are unsupported
on their attempts.

http://road.cc/content/news/54757-vi...rogress-update

--
Simon Mason

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--
Dave - Cyclists VOR. "Many people barely recognise the bicycle as a
legitimate mode of transport; it is either a toy for children or a
vehicle fit only for the poor and/or strange," Dave Horton - Lancaster
University

"Simon Mason" wrote in message
. uk...


Assuming that Mike Hall can keep up the pace he's currently setting, he
looks on course to beat Vin Cox's unsupported and ratified time of 163
days, 6 hours and 58 minutes by almost a month. That's not currently the
record, though; Alan Bate is the incumbent with a time of just 106 days.
Bate's record, however, was set with the help of a support team, leading
for calls for the record to be split into separate standards for supported
and unsupported riders. All of the World Cycle Race participants are
unsupported on their attempts.

http://road.cc/content/news/54757-vi...rogress-update

It will be very interesting to see how few days they can take for this epic
test of human endurance
106 days is simply amazing.

--
Simon Mason