Cyclists who ride a bike without a helmet are three times more likely to die of a head injury than those who wear the protective headwear, a Toronto researcher probing cycling deaths in Ontario has concluded.
In a new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, University of Toronto family doctor lecturer and St Michael’s Hospital associate scientist Navindra Persaud concludes that helmets help prevent fatalities — something he says until now was “controversial.”
He hopes the study will eliminate the thinking that helmets are not useful in serious collisions.
“Previous studies have demonstrated that helmets prevent non-fatal head injuries,” he said. “But this is the first study to demonstrate that helmets prevent fatal head injuries.”
“The conclusion was that bicycle helmets save lives,” he said.
The conclusions are based on data from the Ontario coroner’s report into the 129 accidental cycling deaths that took place in the province between January 2006 and December 2010.
Among the fatalities, 86 per cent were men and 77 per cent involved a motor vehicle. The ages of those killed ranged from 10 to 83.
Persaud and fellow researchers separated deaths due to head injuries and deaths due to other injuries (such as the abdomen or chest). For each group, they determined what fraction of those people were wearing helmets and which were not.
They found that a cyclist not wearing a helmet was three times more likely to die of a head injury than a cyclist wearing a helmet. The results stood up whether or not the cyclist had sustained other serious injuries.
Persaud hopes the study will stimulate policy changes that promote helmet use, including awareness campaigns and financial incentives, such as giving away free helmets.
He also hopes that Ontario will extend its mandatory helmet law to adults; currently, the province only forces cyclists 18 and under to wear a helmet.
“That 88 per cent of (those who died) in our study were older than 18 . . . suggests a gap in public policy,” the research paper concludes.
Mandatory helmet legislation was a key recommendation of the province’s coroner’s June report into the same 129 cycling deaths.
Jared Kolb, director of marketing at Cycle Toronto, an organization which advocates for cycling rights, said the group supports Ontario’s requirement that cyclists under 18 wear helmets.
It encourages adults do the same, but stops short at calling for mandatory helmet legislation. The problem with mandatory helmet laws, he said, is that they can discourage people from riding altogether.
“For us, the most important thing is creating safe cycling infrastructure,” such as bike lanes, he said.
Persaud agrees that improvements to cycling infrastructure in the province must be made, but says they should be made in tandem with increased helmet use.
“Even if we had a perfect infrastructure, there are still going to be collisions and falls, and that’s why helmets would be useful,” he said.
He adds that while wearing a helmet might seem inconvenient right now, so did other safety initiatives that have become common practice, like wearing sunscreen.
“Over time, it’s changed and hopefully this will be part of that,” he said.
In provinces with mandatory helmet laws, such as Nova Scotia, wearing helmets is more common, according to the paper.
The study also cites Victoria, Australia as an example of successful legislation. Helmet use in the city increased from 31 per cent to 75 per cent after the introduction of mandatory helmet legislation, and cycling fatalities decreased by 48 per cent.
Cycling death figures
Total number of cycling deaths in Ontario between January 2006 and December 2010: 129
Ages of those killed: 10 to 83
Total number of those not wearing a helmet: 94 of 129
Number who died of head injuries: 71
Number of head injury deaths where cyclist was not wearing a helmet: 58 (of the 71)
In my opinion:
I’ve said it a thousand times. I’ll say it again. Quebec, too, should heed the warning from this latest study and enact province-wide helmet legislation for all ages. Lives will be saved. Injuries will be prevented or diminished.
Locally, Cote Saint-Luc is a national leader in helmet legislation – the first city in Canada to do so 20 years ago.
Today, we are expanding our fledgling “CSL Cycles” initiative by encouraging cycling, off-road, through our largest parks, on marked bike lanes where possible and by alerting motorists to our bike routes. We must still create a safer environment for the underpasses. Those lanes aren’t wide enough for protected bike lanes and therefore we have exceptionally granted permission to using the sidewalks at these locations.
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