OPINION: cycle helmets should be mandatory, particularly for children

In this latest opinion piece, Mark Pawsey, MP for Rugby, outlines why he is pushing for a change in law to mandate the use of cycle helmets.

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Some years ago, I went on holiday with my family. We rented bikes, and when the person serving us offered me a helmet, I initially declined. He then looked me in the eye and asked, “Just how many brains do you have, sir?”

I took the hint, and the helmet, but there is not always someone on hand to offer such advice and ensure a helmet is worn. And as anybody who has children will know, children do not always take that advice.

I thought little more about this until I met my constituent, Oliver Dibsdale, in February 2022. Oliver explained that in November 2015, when he was fifteen years old, he was cycling along Hillmorton High Street in Rugby when his foot slipped off the pedal and he fell. He hit his head on the kerb and was left with a serious brain injury. He spent four weeks in critical care and a further 15 weeks at Birmingham Children’s Hospital and the Central England Rehabilitation Unit in Leamington Spa. This event has changed Oliver’s life- so much so, that his explanation had to be aided by voice technology because the brain injury he sustained has made it difficult for him to speak. Six years after his accident, he remains in a wheelchair and is likely to do so for the rest of his life; he has lost the use of his left arm; and he has missed so much that his peers have experienced.

Before I met Oliver, I took the view that a helmet was a matter of personal choice, and that any legal requirement to wear a helmet would be difficult to enforce. Oliver told me that he usually wore a helmet when cycling and that he bitterly regrets his decision on that occasion to ride without one. He spoke to me in a very moving way about the impact his injury has had on his family and the guilt he feels for the amount of time they have had to spend caring for him. He very much wants to help other families to avoid this fate.

After my meeting with Oliver, I wrote on his behalf to the Department for Transport several times, and then arranged for Oliver to meet Trudy Harrison MP, then Minister for Transport. Oliver was very pleased to have the opportunity to make his case in Westminster to the Minister. We had an excellent discussion but, to Oliver’s disappointment, the Government’s position remained unchanged—that the wearing of helmets should be a matter of choice, not compulsory.

Oliver continued to disagree, and drew my attention to a number of arguments which I have found persuasive. Oliver points out that it is illegal to drive a car without a seatbelt and that it is compulsory to wear a helmet on a motorcycle. To this, those who oppose mandatory wearing of cycle helmets respond that there is a health benefit from using a bicycle, and that there should not be any discouragement of cycling. Oliver replies to this that, if people wish to exercise, there are many ways of doing so that present less risk; he points out that people can walk, run, take up a sport or go to the gym.

Another argument cited by opponents to mandatory wearing of cycle helmets is that legislation would be difficult to enforce. While it would certainly create an additional burden on the police, it does not strike me as particularly difficult to enforce compared with other offences: it is easier to spot a cyclist without a helmet than to spot a driver using a mobile phone, or a car passenger without a seatbelt. No one now suggests that wearing seatbelts should be a matter of individual choice on the basis of difficulty in enforcing the relevant legislation. The House of Commons Library notes that pedal cyclists are 23 times more likely to be a casualty than a motorist, and are also more likely to die on the road. If mandatory safety measures are acceptable for car drivers, they should also be acceptable for cyclists.

To further make Oliver’s case, I brought forward a ‘Ten Minute Rule Bill’ to require a person riding a bicycle on the public highway to wear a safety helmet. Ten Minute Rule Bills are a type of Private Members’ Bill that are introduced in the House of Commons, which allows a backbench MP to make his or her case for a new Bill in a speech lasting up to ten minutes. Although these rarely pass into law, they are a helpful way of raising the profile of an issue. 

I continue to believe that helmets should be mandatory, particularly for children. Following my Ten Minute Rule Bill, Headway, who are supportive of my call for mandatory helmets for cyclists, have asked me to become a ‘Headway Parliamentary Champion’. I will continue to call for a change in the law, and I would encourage all readers who share my view to make the case to their own Member of Parliament.

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