Wear a helmet

I get the feeling that Damien Grant (‘‘Helmet safety all about freedom’’, March 18) has already found out (several times) how much a helmet would protect your cranial area from extreme damage, but can’t remember this too well.

Ian Wilson, Ngaruawahia

‘‘Each person knows their own profile and is able to make their own assessment and should bear the cost of their decisions,’’ Grant writes.

But they don’t, do they? We pay. Our loved ones sit in hospital emergency department corridors peeing themselves in shame because they can’t walk to a toilet, and staff are too busy to take them, because they are treating people who have been exercising their freedom to choose – among them helmetless cyclists.

The elderly get bumped off the hip surgery list to accommodate ‘‘freedom of choice-ers’’ needing brain surgery. Then we pay for the months of rehab until the ‘‘freedom of choice-er’’ goes home to lifelong state-paid home care.

Caring communities require rules which reduce the cost our decisions inflict on others. It’s not all about you.

Karen Penney, Auckland

What a shame if the efforts of Rebecca Oaten (The Cycle Helmet Lady) turn out to be wasted because of the selfish views of a few loud voices.

Derek and Lianne Nees, Nelson