TIME LINE OF A TIFF

2008

UK Department for Transport shows that overall bicycle helmet wearing in the UK was 34.3% - in line with a constant increase since 1994, when it was 16%. It remains approximately a third in 2016.

2009

Transport Research Laboratory review of over 100 police forensic reports into cycling fatalities showed that between 10 and 16% of those fatalities would have been avoided had the victim been wearing an “appropriate cycle helmet”.

2010

“Helmets are a barrier to new riders. The need to wear a helmet reinforces the message that cycling is dangerous – with perceptions of danger a major reason people give for not cycling” – Chris Rissel, professor of public health at the University of Sydney.

2011

Review of the data used in a 2010 study finds a 29% reduction in bicycle-related head injury attributable to the introduction of the mandatory helmet law.

2012

Olympic champion and Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins tweets that all cyclists should be forced by law to wear helmets on the road.

2014

“I see lots of people in bike accidents and these flimsy little helmets don’t help” – Henry Marsh, neurosurgeon at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, London. Helmets are compulsory (with limited exceptions) for children aged 13 years and under.

2015

“Humans adapt their risk-taking behaviour on the basis of perceptions of safety” – Dr Tim Gamble, traffic psychologist at the University of Bath, on the publication of a report suggesting cyclists take more risk when wearing helmets.

2016

“I went flying towards the concrete road. I was wearing a helmet that saved my life” – Sir Richard Branson. Helmet use is associated with odds reductions of 69% for serious head injury and 65% for fatal head injury – University of NSW review of 40 separate studies.