New helmet freedom Advertisment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8o1eDFCbTk
This add series was aired by a friend on TV in Brisbane recently. :-)
QLD recently had change of government the original nanny state party is gone so there is now a good chance that there could be a change to the helmet laws either to an NT style exemption or complete exemption for all adults.
It is remarkable that at time when we are about to be hit with a CO2 tax and with all the public concern over global warming and the huge burden on the health system of sedentary lifestyle diseases that the most efficient and healthy form of transport has been and is still being discouraged by helmet laws. As a result of this law the predominant type of riders remaining on our roads seem to be lycra wearing men on racers - this would tend to suggest that repealing this law would result in a huge increase in the number of other people riding especially women (the NT has the highest participation of women riders of any state - it is also the only region with a bicycle helmet exemption for adults ).
At the same time there is a lack of any statistical evidence of effacicy of helmet laws in fact their failure and large deterrent effect on cycling is both used as...
- so why are we still burdened with this counter productive nanny state law.
Even though 1500 people die in car accidents yearly car drivers are not forced to wear helmets, in fact the government takes our tax and gives it away to incompetent car companies who cant balance their books. !
http://afr.com/p/opinion/labor_great_car_industry_betrayal_ZSBFO4nK...
The government's bias is clear, in your car it's air-conditioned comfort but ride a bike and you get will get fined if you refuse to wear a sweat box on your head even at low speed or offroad.
The Labor governments poor judgment and steadfast refusal to admit their bias is obvious - it is simply appalling that this law not only results in thousands of innocent people being fined every year, which is at best a waste of police time and resources. It also deters thousands more from cycling in favour of motor cars which are one of the primary sources of pollution including not just C02 but other toxins which can cause health problems for people living near roads. Motor vehicles are also responsible for the great majority of pedestrians killed each year and over 90% of cyclist fatalities.
Whether you personally prefer to wear a helmet or not please show your support for reform and support the right of others to choose for themselves.
Tags: helmets
Replies are closed for this discussion.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Derek Hasel on -
This is a paid political announcement from the Liberal Party, This is a paid political announcement from the Liberal Party, This is a paid........................... " Get over it . Various State Liberal Governments have also brought in this law and have not attempted to repel it and I bet you $100 this current 'Bozo' in QLD won't change the law. The law is there to protect your silly head !
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Permalink Reply by Matt Jones on -
The government's bias is clear, in your car it's air-conditioned comfort but ride a bike and you get will get fined if you refuse to wear a sweat box on your head even at low speed or offroad.
OK, try driving to the shops not wearing a seatbelt.
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Permalink Reply by Alasdair McLellan on -
I should be allowed to do that if I'm driving at 15 km/h, right?
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Permalink Reply by stephen on -
You probably can get away without wearing seat belt and quite legally too. !
And as far as prosecution goes it's almost impossible for police to detect failure to wear a seatbelt so very few people get convicted for not wearing. But a bike rider on a footpath or road is easily visible from some distance and helmet convictions represent the vast majority of of offences given to bike riders in fact by comparison this law is massively over policed conservatively over half a million infringements have been issued against bike users since it's introduction (probably millions of warnings also).
There are many exceptions to wearing seatbelts bus's are an obvious one.
If there is no seat belt you don't have to wear one - if you don't have bike helmet riding on a bike you get fine.!
http://www.transport.wa.gov.au/licensing/20930.asp
In WA for example
Legally, you do not have to wear a seat belt if you are:
The driver of a vehicle travelling in reverse
In possession of a current medical certificate authorising exemption
Doing work which requires getting in and out of the vehicle frequently, and the vehicle does not travel faster than 25 km/h
Under the age of 12 months and in a taxi, if there is no suitable child restraint available
A taxi driver carrying passengers after dark
Pregnant with a current medical certificate exemption. -
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Permalink Reply by GlenM on -
According to 2 members of the police force I have spoken to its really easy to see if someone is wearing a seatbelt when you know what to look for
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Permalink Reply by Just another psycho-list on -
The brain sits on top of your body in an egg-shell. Fall off a bicycle or motor bike without a helmet and see what happens to your brain.
I have a friend who rode his bicycle everywhere as a young guy. I didn't see him for a while and he was by then, doing medicine at Uni. I asked him if he still rode everywhere (e.g. up to Blackwood, where he lived) and he said that he no longer rode his bicycle, due to the fact that he had seen too many brain injured people.
Another friend who lived in Santa Cruz, California, was riding his bicycle everywhere because he believed in helping the earth's sustainability by not using fossil fueled vehicles. He was doored and it killed him. He was not wearing a helmet, because it was not law and it was his "freedom" to do that.
My daughter would be dead if it wasn't for her bicycle helmet - she had a massive smash off her mountain bike on a trail in Seattle USA, when she was eight years old. You should have seen the mess the helmet was in after that.
I could quite possibly be dead or brain injured, but lucky for me, my helmet split, instead of my skull in my recent accident and I got away with concussion rather than the alternatives.
The government has enough problem paying the medicare bills as it is, without the burden of lots of people turning into dribbling vegetables due to head injuries.
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Permalink Reply by Alasdair McLellan on
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Hang on, we still allow people to smoke...
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Permalink Reply by Just another psycho-list on
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Not if it was up to me...
I hate having to be a passive smoker.
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Permalink Reply by Alasdair McLellan on
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Maybe in that case we should have to 'buy' a licence to ride without a helmet. ;)
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Permalink Reply by Edward @bikeadelaide on -
I feel terrible that you lost a friend but he/she was killed because he/she was doored not because there was no mandatory helmet law in place. Those sorts of anecdotes do not prove anything.
Every so often the subject of helmets comes up on this forum. Generally it is because someone has seen a cyclist without a helmet which then leads to a great deal of judging and tut-tutting. Nothing is said about the very many cyclists who ride around with a brittle 30 year old helmet or a helmet perched on the back of their head.
I have yet to hear any explanation at all (never mind a convincing explanation) of why the introduction of helmet laws made absolutely no difference to rates of head injuries to cyclists. None whatsoever. Since the introduction of the helmet laws there must be a thousand stories every year of what would otherwise be fatal injuries but weren't thanks to helmets. Where were all those fatalities prior to the introduction of the law?
Finally, if helmet laws are so necessary why are there still only 4 countries on the planet with all-ages helmet laws? Guam is the most recent addition but it doesn't have a helmet law for motorcyclists. Go figure.
If helmet laws did what is claimed, all of those other countries would have higher injury and fatality rates. They do not. Please please please explain that to me.
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Permalink Reply by Alasdair McLellan on
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It's possible that cyclists riding with helmets ride more dangerously. there's plenty of anecdotal evidence for that.
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