A meta - study of enquiry cover 64,000 cycling chance event has provided consuming evidence that bicycle helmets reduce both death and wound . The findings also refute the claim that the benefits to the head are balanced by increased damage to the neck , and get hold that serious head injuries are cut back by almosy 70 per centum with a helmet .
It would seem obvious that anyone who runs into worry on a two - wheel fomite will be better off with something between their skull and the route . However , the benefits of bicycle helmets have become an area of considerable controversy .
Most of the heating system comes from the little number of seat , particularly Australia and New Zealand , where the wearing of helmets while turn on is compulsory . Riders who favour to palpate the wind in their hair , or just do n’t like to be told what to do , resent the laws . As with so many other issues , the science became a dupe of politics , with opponents of legislation fiercelypromoting claimsthat helmet are of little welfare and may in reality be harmful .
The doubt is complicated further by evidence that forcing people to wear helmets caused some cyclist to halt ride . Even if helmet save lives , some argue , laws that push people into less healthy and more polluting mannequin of transport do more harm than good .
Realizing that some of the widely - quoted research was too modest - scale to be reliable , Dr Jake Olivierof the University of New South Wales set out to hoard the best evidence available . He drew together 40 equal - reviewed study on the subject , which has been write in theInternational Journal of Epidemiology .
Olivier find out that head injuries are 51 percent low-pitched among wheeler who wear helmets . Serious nous injury are 69 pct less likely with a helmet , and the risk of being wipe out is about one third as high for helmet wearers . Neck injuries do not seem to be more vulgar with helmet , and are usually sufficiently minor for cycle rider that a diminished increase would scarcely register compare to maneuver injury reductions .
Olivier demo his finding at theSafety 2016conference in Finland this hebdomad . In a litigious consultation with Fairfax media , Professor Raphael Grzebieta , a colleague of Olivier’s , said : “ This report emphatically prove that wheel helmet are efficacious in reducing wit trauma in either single - vehicle falls or impacts with motor vehicles . There is a silent majority that agree they are effectual , but there is also a small minority radical that base their opinions on dust science … and they will go out of their elbow room to try and essay that helmets do n’t reduce brain injuries . ”
This paper does not shed any light on the harder question of whether mandatory helmet laws monish riders , and Olivier acknowledge that safe riding stipulation like bike lanes may be more important . Nevertheless , Olivier has previously cast incertitude on the claims helmet are amajor deterent to cycling , and the latest work does show that anyone choosing to sit without a helmet is n’t using their head .
