It's happening!!!!! We're getting the 'green light'!!
Clearly, mandatory helmet laws will soon be repealed!!!
Brilliant article from Matthew Moore in the SMH yesterday, and brilliant coverage on ABC radio with Professor Chris Rissel himself.
This is the home straight, everybody - it's going to have all been worthwhile...
...three cheers to all of us & our unrelenting persistence!!!
...oh the power of grassroots!!!
That is good New's indeed but you will have to keep up the pressure or the whole thing will be Stymied in Bureaucracy and the Naysayers who want to keep things as they are. You will still get those who want to obstruct anything being Repealed.
ReplyDeleteI wonder when this is all over and it has been declared Illegal and an Infringement of your Right's will they give back the Money that was wrested off People in Fines for not wearing those Helmets.
Good point - I have a little 'tab' running that could do with fixing up!!!!
ReplyDeleteYes! Good news...
ReplyDeleteThank you for pointing out that article. It is great.
ReplyDeleteBased on the following from the article:
ReplyDeleteTo reach their conclusions, Dr Rissel analysed the ratio of head injuries to arm injuries among cyclists admitted to hospital between 1988 and 2008. He assumed the ratio would not change unless helmet use reduced head injury rates compared with arm injury rates.
And the quote from Omar Khalifa, CEO of Bicycle NSW:
''We believe riders who have ridden and fallen would almost all support the fact the helmet may have saved them from more serious injuries but … the study does not pick up any of that.''
Are we to conclude that the CEO of Bicycle NSW believes that bicycle helmets prevent arm injuries or that he does not understand what a ratio is?
It is good the issue is getting press, not so good that other cyclists are standing in the way with irrational nonsense.
Don't get to excited Sue , I note that the original expert who spearheaded the campaign Professor Frank McDermott has hit back,"It'll be as backward a step as it would be to tell motorists they don't have to wear seatbelts," .www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/17/2985631.htm. It will be a long and drawn out debate.
ReplyDeleteIt is good to see the Cycling Promotion Fund being sensible whereas BNSW will never have enough 'compelling' evidence as they 'believe' in helmets a little too much...
ReplyDeletehttp://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/audio/twt/201008/20100816-twt-06-bike-helmets.mp3
Great audio clip.
Dr Paul Martin
Brisbane, Australia
...but haven't Professor McDermott's findings been refuted? Also what has the wearing of seatbelts got to do with mandatory bicycle helmet laws? Jeez, not that old chestnut!! The police prosecutor used that line of argument on me when my matter appeared in the Local Court last September!!!!
ReplyDelete...but we're getting there - we really are!!
on treehugger
ReplyDeletehttp://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/08/calls-for-australia-to-drop-compulsory-bicycle-helmets-laws.php
I am a cyclist who has been riding for 40 years. Despite the illegal rules enacted by almost all bicycle clubs, I never have and never will wear one. It's a matter of personal choice. Wearing a helmet is no guarantee you will not die from a head injury and is no substitute for incompetent and or dangerous cycling.
ReplyDelete