[SystemSafety] Bicycle Helmets

Wed Oct 15 16:02:21 CEST 2014

An observation - recently, I saw a cyclist in a motorcycle helmet. Maybe they had read the BSI standard and decided they needed something more?

One design feature of motorcycle and horse-riding helmets is that they protect the neck from being over-flexed by having a lowered back edge to the helmet. This is not a feature of normal cycle helmets. I wonder if the statistics would improve if there were a second bike-helmet standard designed for "high-speed or long-distance" cycling? 

Cheers,
	Alvery

** These opinions are my own, not necessarily those of my employer **

-----Original Message-----
From: systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de [mailto:systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de] On Behalf Of Mike Ellims
Sent: 15 October 2014 1:17 PM
To: 'Peter Bernard Ladkin'; systemsafety at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de
Subject: Re: [SystemSafety] Bicycle Helmets

Peter wrote:

> That's the puzzle. The value of helmets is obvious - many of us seem 
> to
know some one
> or more whose lives have been saved - but apparently not from the numbers.

One thing that must be kept in mind when discussing bike helmets is that the collision design speed is (if I remember correctly) only around 20 kph. Thus if the collision speed is below that then the helmet should perform as advertised at speeds greater than that... In particular helmets are designed to protect you falling off the bike i.e 

"BSI Standard 6863:1987 read as follows: 
'It (the standard) specifies requirements for helmets intended for use by pedal cyclists on ordinary roads, particularly by young riders in the 5 years to 14 years age group, but which may also be suitable for off the road. It is not intended for high-speed or long distance cycling, or for riders taking part in competitive events. The level of protection offered is less than that given by helmets for motorcycle riders and is intended to give protection in the kind of accident in which the rider falls onto the road without other vehicles being involved.'".

I took this from the following http://www.cyclehelmets.org/papers/c2023.pdf

An interesting article available on the same site is http://www.cyclecraft.co.uk/digest/effectiveness.pdf which points out lots of studies seem to have some bias and concludes that:

" It seems reasonable to expect that reductions in injuries brought about through the wearing of cycle helmets would be reflected in the general accident statistics in places where helmet use has become significant. This should particularly be the case if the more optimistic predictions for injury reduction are correct. However, whole population statistics from Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada show no distinguishable change in fatalities, and statistics for London show no such change for any severity of injury, as helmet use has increased substantially.

This suggests that the real-world performance of cycle helmets may be falling well short of the predictions that have been made."

Mind you I intend to keep wearing my helmet because in all but one instance where I've come off no other vehicle was involved and off's have mostly been at low speed; a few on iced roads, one where I forgot to loosen the straps on my pedals before stopping and fell over; and one where the chain jammed starting off... and I fell over. The other incident was where I was t-boned by a car; if the oncoming traffic hadn't stopped having a brain bucket would have made no difference.

-----Original Message-----
From: systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de
[mailto:systemsafety-bounces at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de] On Behalf Of Peter Bernard Ladkin
Sent: 15 October 2014 06:52
To: systemsafety at lists.techfak.uni-bielefeld.de
Subject: Re: [SystemSafety] Bicycle Helmets

On 2014-10-15 00:01 , David Crocker wrote:
> I have some indirect experience of the value of cycle helmets.

David's story is similar to what happened in one of the two incidents to my friend who wrecked two helmets and her jaw, but in her case it was a lamppost base.

That's the puzzle. The value of helmets is obvious - many of us seem to know some one or more whose lives have been saved - but apparently not from the numbers.

PBL

Prof. Peter Bernard Ladkin, Faculty of Technology, University of Bielefeld,
33594 Bielefeld, Germany
Tel+msg +49 (0)521 880 7319  www.rvs.uni-bielefeld.de

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