Ron van der Eerden dominated headlines earlier this month when he headed into traffic court to challenge B.C.s helmet legislation. After being hit with a $29 ticket for ignoring the helmet law, van der Eerden argued it violated his Charter rights to life, liberty and security of person.
Lindsay Shedden became an unlikely helmet advocate after her close friend, Dan Winnick, died following a run in with a car (see story page 5). In the wake of Dans death, Lindsay moved to Calgary to manage Sled Island Music Festival and started a branch of Vancouver-based non-profit Prohab Helmet Society, which encourages riders of all ages to put a lid on it.
Here the two go head to head on helmets at the WE office.
My main concern with helmet legislation is that I believe that the data shows that its actually counterproductive and its leading to more deaths, less safety, putting cyclists at greater risk than there would be if there wasnt any legislation. And as a bit of an aside, theres data severely questioning the effectiveness of helmets themselves.
Its been shown fairly clearly that helmet legislation deters a lot of people from cycling and there are many implications to that. From the safety perspective, right away its understood that a concept called safety in numbers is really important and if we are deterring people from cycling, we are reducing the number of people that are potentially riding their bikes.
The more people there are on there bikes, the more theyre being visible on the street and motorists are aware of them. And ultimately the biggest danger to cyclists is motorists. Over 70 per cent of fatalities in B.C. are in motor vehicle collisions.
Also, if were deterring people from riding their bike a lot of those people are going to get back in their car and the risk of head injury in a car is actually far higher than in riding without a helmet, so were actually increasing the amount of head injuries by having the helmet legislation.
One other thing there is that if you put those people back in a car, theyre risking other peoples lives, not just their own. A car is what is killing 70 per cent of the cyclists, so youre increasing the risk for cyclists by putting more people back in cars and increasing the risk for pedestrians as well.
Well to me that just doesnt make sense. Im not sure where these statistics are coming from because Ive also done research and I went into a lot of different websites and Ive found only the positives.
I equate helmets to seat belts and life jackets. Its just one of those things you just want to protect your body.
When youre in a vehicle, you are surrounded by steel and yeah, its not going to really help that much if youre flipping around and stuff. But if you just come into contact with, say, that car door that somebody opens too quickly without looking or a sign or a parked car, anything, and you go flying and theres nothing to protect your head thats your brain, thats your heart, thats where your ideas come from, your motor skills.
To me, its just common sense that when you have protection around that, maybe you are going to break your collar bone or an arm or a leg or, heaven forbid, your neck, but the recovery time from something like that, except for in a few severe cases, is going to be so much less.
When you go into the hospital with a brain injury, thats the ward where people stay the longest, besides palliative care. People live there for months or years. To me, it really is just common sense that when you have that protection and youre lessening the impact of whatever you hit on your skull and your brain, that youre recovery time is going to be a lot less.
For me, if Dan had had a helmet on, there is no way we are all sure, even the doctors and everybody that he would have been able to recover from this. Of course, he may not have been the exact same person, but the ultimate penalty for him not wearing a helmet was him losing his life. And thats something that we all live with every day. And I truly believe in the cause that were doing right now.
Ron van der Eerdens case is set to resume in B.C. traffic court in October. Information on Prohab Helmet Society can be found at Prohab.ca.
