Dan Walker accidentally started bike helmet wars, but they had been raging for years

When TV presenter Dan Walker took to social media last month to share his collision with a car while cycling, perhaps the last thing he expected was to stir up the culture wars.

Or maybe he did – it was Twitter, after all – but among the many messages wishing him a speedy recovery and his own thanks to NHS staff and others who helped him, there was one expressing gratitude for the helmet on his head. .

“I understand this is a contentious issue and I don’t want to talk about it,” Walker wrote. “I’m just glad mine worked today and the local agent called me this afternoon and said I wouldn’t be here right now if I wasn’t wearing one.

“Back to my cup of tea through a straw.”

Followed by a grinning emoji (which apparently only old people use).

It may have been new to many that wearing a helmet while cycling on the road was controversial, in fact, pros and cons have clashed for decades.

The reasons are many, and both claim that science — and common sense — are on their side.

Of course, if you fall off your bike at any speed, a protective layer between your head and the road will protect you from more serious injuries than without it. This position is rarely contested.

However, helmets cannot prevent all injuries and research shows that they offer little protection against concussions – often cited as a reason not to wear a helmet. What helmets do and are good at is preventing serious head injuries, skull fractures and facial fractures compared to people without a helmet.

But what if we take a step back and try to prevent these accidents in the first place. A helmet can’t make an accident more or less likely, can it?

Some would say yes, a helmet increases the chances of the wearer being involved in a single bicycle or road collision. There are two reasons.

First, a 2016 study showed that helmet riders take more risks. Second, there is body of work suggesting that motorists get closer to overtaking cyclists when the driver wears a helmet. Renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Henry Marsh is one of those not wearing helmets and cites this research as one of the reasons why.

However, statistics on collisions on UK roads show that they are most common at junctions (53%), while the highest proportion of fatal crashes – 45% – involving a vehicle is due to a driver not paying attention. Insufficient maneuvering was the cause of about 9% of these accidents.

A 2008 Dutch government study found that while only about 1% of cyclists in the Netherlands wore a helmet, 13.3% of cyclists in hospital were wearing one at the time of their accident. However, 50% of those injured were riding mountain bikes and 46% road bikes, both of which are more likely to crash at higher speeds than those who commute regularly.

Like all statistics, they require complete and proper context.

To name a few, in a recent survey of 2,000 regular cyclists, 45% said they don’t wear a helmet while cycling – yet two-thirds admit to worrying about brain damage from cycling. Other statistics show that 80% of Britons feel responsible for encouraging friends and family to wear helmets when cycling.

And while wearing a helmet remains a personal choice for those who get on two wheels (pedal-drive bikes, let’s not even get on e-bikes), there’s a wealth of scientific research supporting the effectiveness of helmets in preventing more serious injuries. .