Injured cyclist says helmets ‘no-brainer’
Push for headgear choice is ‘woolly-headed thinking’
The yellow helmet that was strapped on to commuter cyclist Dr James Woodfine’s head when he crashed and was launched over the handlebars has suffered a “fatal injury”.
Happily, it also protected Woodfine’s head. Other parts of his body suffered badly in the prang involving a bush encroaching on to the cycleway/footpath in Bayswater on Auckland’s North Shore.
The helmet is destined for the rubbish bin, having done its job. The large crack up one side has reminded Woodfine of the value of wearing a helmet and has prompted him to speak out against the “reckless” campaign calling for adult cyclists to be allowed to choose whether or not to wear one.
He said wearing a helmet is “a nobrainer”. “Brains don’t heal like bones.
“If I hadn’t been wearing a helmet I would have had a head injury,” said the 61-year-old North Shore Hospital anaesthetist, who began cycling when he was 5.
Some cycling advocates assert that New Zealand’s law requiring all cyclists to wear a helmet, introduced in 1994, is holding back cycling and want it changed to give adults a choice.
“Our cycling rates have dropped dramatically with the introduction of the law,” Tim Gummer, of Choice Biking, has said. He maintains that cycling is a low-risk activity.
Woodfine said this is “woollyheaded thinking”.
“Cycling has got to be safe. If you fall off a bicycle you are completely unprotected. The most vulnerable part of you that is susceptible to damage is your head.
“It is not unreasonable to expect people to wear a helmet because the consequences of a head injury are so devastating, and it’s the public that has to pick up the tab of the extensive
‘The consequences of a head injury are so devastating.’ James Woodfine
medical treatment and rehabilitation, not to mention the human cost and suffering and the loss of a valuable and productive member of society.”
He was in North Shore Hospital for 12 days after his accident on March 9. Five ribs were fractured, a lung collapsed, he lost a lot of blood and had a transfusion, and a collarbone was dislocated.
He will be off work for several more weeks and may need a shoulder reconstruction — but he is adamant he will eventually get back on the saddle, for the good of his longterm health.
“Exercise is the super-drug,” Woodfine said.
The accident happened at about 8am when he was cycling to work from his home in Bayswater on March 9. He has been cycling to work as often as he can on the same route for about 15 years, but hadn’t done so for several weeks before the accident.
He coasted down the path from Bayswater Ave and passed a woman jogging in the opposite direction.
While passing her, his direction of travel altered a little, then he steered around a slight bend to the right and hit the bush, which had grown from the left to cover about a third of the pathway.
It “grabbed” his bike and he was thrown forward 3 or 4m on to the sealed path. The jogger and another woman came to his aid and ambulance officers were called.
Woodfine said he was annoyed about lack of maintenance beside the cycleway. “I would have been all right if that bush hadn’t overgrown the cycleway.”
Auckland Council’s head of operational management and maintenance, Agnes McCormack, said the council would “assess the maintenance being conducted along the Devonport to Takapuna shared pathway in areas that council contractors are responsible for to ensure that it is being kept clear for all users”.