A study, published this month in the New Zealand Medical Journal, makes the claim that a law making wearing a cycle helmet mandatory has not reduced injuries.
Aside from Australia, New Zealand is the only major nation where the law obliges cyclists to wear a helmet. This new study evaluates the impact of this legislation which came into force in 1994.
Cycle helmet law had no impact on injuries
The research, which compared data on injuries during the period 1987-1991 and 2003-2007, found that overall injury rates per hour had actually increased by 20%.
The study also estimated that the health benefits gained from cycling outweighed the loss in life years to accidents by more than 20 times.
Cycling participation halved
The article also includes an examination of cycling numbers in New Zealand which showed that the average hours cycled per person has declined by 50% since the legislation was bought in.
UK cycle helmet law
It is currently not law to wear a cycle helmet. With the WI potentially promoting a cycle helmet law to the forefront of their campaigning and the high profile cycle safety campaign recently featured in the Times, will be seeing a similar law suggested here?
While this is a simple piece of legislation to enact, as this latest study and a large body of research shows, the case for wearing a helmet, and a law to enfore this, is not as clear as it may seem at face value.