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  • The 3rd International Conference on Injury Prevention and Control

    The 3rd International Conference on Injury Prevention and Control [NOTE: The official Web site for this conference, which was formerly located at www.nisu.flinders.edu.au, is no longer available. Links from this page have been removed accordingly. ] The 3rd International Conference on Injury Prevention and Control was held in Melbourne, Australia from February 18-22 1996. For bicycle…

  • Compulsory Bicycle Helmets: Unfair Discrimination

    Wearing of helmets has been compulsory for cyclists in Australia for years, but how many people know that reports of the Federal Office of Road Safety, in 1987 and 1998, recommend them for occupants of motor vehicles too? Hoping that helmet wearing would reduce serious head injury and satisfied that the costs and inconvenience to…

  • Henderson Paper Reviewed

    The 1995 Henderson report can be found here.  It is another report exaggerating the benefits of helmets, funded by the NSW government. Another critique of this report can be found here. Individuals and organizations zealously pushing mandatory helmet use for cyclists are continuing to churn out reams of propaganda. One of the more voluminous efforts…

  • Medical Doctors, and the Compulsory Helmets Law

    Introduction by Peter van Schaik Medical Doctors have frequently claimed the right to enforce compulsory helmets on cyclists, to protect the public purse. For example in his review entitled “The Effectiveness of Bicycle Helmets: A Review” (1995), Dr. Michael Henderson says: “There remains a proportion of the riding population who are opposed to legislation requiring…

  • Civil Liberties Considerations

    A. AUSTRALIA 1. Lionel Murphy, address to ALP National Conference, 1967 Every generation has to fight over and over again the battle for our fundamental rights and liberties and this generation has to do that also. We Australians tend to think that our civil rights are beyond question. In recent times, almost every one of…

  • Review of Evidence of the Efficacy of Helmets for Cyclists

    Introduction That the wearing of a helmet can protect cyclists from head injury might seem obvious. Measurements in laboratories have shown that helmets have the potential to do this, but, as Davis (1993) noted, the issue is what happens when the devices promoted by such research are used and adapted by real people. Research into…

  • Discouragement Of Cycling, And Effects On Welfare

    Written in 1994 1. Introduction This paper examines the rationale for compulsory wearing of helmets as stated by the then Federal Minister for Land Transport: that head injury to cyclists will be reduced, resulting in savings to the community in health care and other costs – in effect, an increase in public welfare. Laboratory tests…

  • A Review of the South Australian Office of Road Safety Report 8/94

    1. Introduction This is a review of the South Australian Office of Road Safety report 8/94 subtitled “Evaluation of the Compulsory Helmet Wearing Legislation for Bicyclists in South Australia”. This report (herein referred to as SAORS 8/94) shows that authorities in South Australia have been committed to the policy of helmet wearing for cyclists since…

  • Change in Casualties to Cyclists Following The Helmets Law

    Written in 1994 Introduction The Federal Government took action in 1989 to make Australia the first country in the world to compel cyclists to wear helmets, but had little knowledge of the likely effects of its action. As the Government of Victoria told the Federal Parliamentary Committee that recommended compulsory helmets, “the incidence of bicycle…

  • Reduction in Cyclists in the A.C.T.

    written in 1994 Ratcliffe (1993) reported that mean weekday cycle path daily volumes in the ACT were recorded in (December) 1992 to be about one third lower than the similar period in (November) 1991, with mean weekend daily volumes declining by about half. This was after compulsory helmet legislation was introduced in July 1992, compelling…