Bicycle Helmets

ACRS Policy Position

ACRS acknowledges that bicycle helmets substantially reduce the risk of head injury in a crash.  This is shown by biomechanical and epidemiological evidence.  Scientific research has provided evidence on the benefits of bicycle helmet wearing, quite independent of issues related to the acceptability and effects of legislation.

ACRS supports legislation that requires the wearing of Australian Standards-approved protective helmets by all bicycle riders, adults and children.  There should be effective, high profile enforcement of helmet wearing laws, together with appropriate publicity.  There is a need for uniform advice regarding the correct method of wearing approved bicycle helmets.

Objective

To encourage and support the wearing of bicycle helmets by riders at all times.

Discussion

Bicycle riding is a world-wide activity and an important means of transport for millions of people.  Head injuries have emerged as a serious problem for bicyclists involved in crashes, and for the community as a whole because in large part the cost of an individual's injury is a cost to the community.

Over the 20 years 1970 to 1990, bicyclist fatality rates per 100,000 people have fallen by an average of 1.0% each year, but this is a rate of fall less than one-third of that shown by other road user groups.  Further, non-fatal injuries resulting from bicycle crashes are grossly under-reported in official road crash statistics.  Injury rates are especially high in children and in males.

Several studies, in Australia and other countries, have shown that, depending how the statistics are collected and analysed, bicycle crashes result in serious head injuries in one quarter to two thirds of bicyclists admitted to hospital, and up to 80% if the collisions involved a motor vehicle.  Up to 80% of deaths among bicyclists are due to severe head injury.

Bicyclists admitted to hospital with head injuries are 20 times as likely to die as those without.

Several scientific studies have now been conducted into the effectiveness of bicycle helmets.  They are known to reduce the risk of severe head injury by at least one third, and up to 85%.  Those who do not wear helmets are several times more likely to sustain injury to the brain tissue than do riders who do.  Helmets designed to the Australian and Snell standards provide a margin of protection in the real world greater than the respective standards require.  The vast majority of head impacts occurring in the real world of traffic are easily survivable if a Standards-approved helmet is worn.

In July 1990 Victoria made the wearing of pedal cycle helmets compulsory, and through 1991 and 1992 NSW and other states and territories followed suit.  In the two years after compulsory helmet wearing legislation was introduced in Victoria, the number of bicyclists with head injuries decreased by 48% and 70% in each of the two years, relative to the last year before the law.  ACRS believes that legislation, with concomitant enforcement, is the only effective way to rapidly increase wearing rates to 80% or so.  There should also be further research on use and design of bicycle helmets to increase acceptability and wearability.