Tackle the risks before they come to a head

Madam, – After reading the story “Cycle helmet plea after youngster’s bike injuries” on February 15, I feel as a cycle trainer that it is important to comment on this widely misunderstood facet of cycling safety.

The boy’s father Mr Rae states, “We want to use this situation to stress to kids they need to wear helmets while cycling”, but while the perceived importance of helmets in the UK makes that understandable, it is not actually a sound conclusion.

In risk management there is a hierarchy of measures to prevent accidents. At the top are things that prevent problems altogether, and at the bottom is personal protective equipment to try to mitigate ill effects. To best deal with the issue we need to promote ways of avoiding accidents.

Cycle safety is similar to pedestrian safety (mile for mile in terms of serious accident rates cyclists fare a little better). The real key is not colliding with motor vehicles and anything else is secondary. Bikeability Scotland training (available in some Dundee schools) teaches the rules to obey (including not cycling on the pavement) and the skills needed to properly control and position a bike and to interact with other road users and avoid accidents.

It should further be stressed that cycle helmets are not designed to deal with high energy impacts (eg with moving motor vehicles), another reason they should not be promoted as being of primary importance.

Mr Rae also states, “Kids are taking cycle helmets out of the house but they then put them in a school bag as it is not seen as cool to wear them,” and this shows that helmets are a disincentive to cycle.

It is widely agreed that cycling is an overall benefit to health so anything that puts people off it is actually a public health own-goal. It is counter-intuitive, but well-meaning helmet promotion in the interests of safety is doing more harm than good by keeping people off bikes.

In the longer term the answer is to create an environment where people don’t see a need for crash helmets, like the Netherlands. Dundee’s Cycling Strategy is making moves towards this, but in the meantime it is important to realise that cycle helmets on the roads are a reaction to perception of danger rather than a way of usefully dealing with it.

Peter Clinch. Hazel Avenue, Dundee.