Where are the helmets?
I have been toying with the idea of using one of the new government bicycles dotted about London and was wondering if I could get away without buying a helmet. As a brain injury solicitor it would be ironic if I were to suffer a brain injury whilst riding one without a helmet, yet how inconvenient to have to lug one around. Then I read the piece in Thursday’s Guardian: titled ‘This bike hire scheme is laudable – but where are the helmets?’ It’s a response to the earlier article ‘Just get on the seat and pedal: London bike hire scheme takes off’ published 31 July, where all six photographs accompanying the article had not one single rider, including the reporter and the mayor of London, wearing a helmet. The author, Will Gosling who teaches at the Frenchay hospital, Bristol, and is a member of its multi-disciplinary brain injury rehabilitation team, talks about the life-changing injuries that affect cyclists as a result of not wearing a helmet, ‘including a range of newly developed learning difficulties – in the form of memory impairment, reduced powers of concentration, slower processing and organisational skills, and changes in behaviour – and sometimes, seriously impaired physical disabilities.’ Hmm, maybe the inconvenience will be worth it.