Courtesy of adaweb.net

The question shouldn’t be why is there a battle raging over bike helmets in Toronto, the question should be why isn’t there a law mandating bike helmets for adults in Toronto? It doesn’t take a great deal of intelligence to predict the potential for head injury when you fall off a bike. In a bike versus car collision the car always wins and the potential for grave head injuries and death can’t be ignored. Why wouldn’t any sane cyclist want to do everything possible to stack in deck in his favour?

The argument made by Yvonne Bambrick, executive director of the Toronto Cyclists Union representing about 800 cyclists, says that cyclists over the age of 18 shouldn’t be forced to wear helmets because “millions of people ride safely everyday without them”. If you accept that as a valid reason then motorcyclists should not be required to ride with helmets and drivers of cars should no longer be required to wear seatbelts. The reality is that research shows:

• About ¾ of all cycling fatalities involve head injuries.
• A case-control study of the effectiveness of bicycle safety helmets published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that riders with helmets had an 85 % reduction in their risk of head injury and an 88 % reduction in their risk of brain injury.
• Bicycle safety helmets are highly effective in preventing head injury according to HealthyOntario.com.

Since bicycles are a form of transportation and share the roads, they should be subject to the same types of laws that scooters and motorcycles are, including licensing. The bike lobby wants it both ways – they want to make roads safer for bicycles without accepting any responsibility for ensuring the safety of cyclists.

If you are in the market for a bike helmet make sure that it meets safety standards by looking inside the helmet for stickers from:

• Canadian Standard Association: CAN/CSA D113.2-M89
• Snell Memorial Foundation: Snell B90, Snell B90S, or Snell N94
• American National Standard Institute: ANSI Z90.4-1984
• American Society For Testing and Materials: ASTMF1447-94
• British Standards Institute: BS6863:1989
• Standards Association of Australia: AS2063.2-1990