Mandatory helmets for cyclists new rule of the road?

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/03/2012 (4948 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE Manitoba government may soon make it illegal for cyclists to ride without a helmet.

“We’re looking forward and seriously considering the legislation shortly,” Healthy Living Minister Jim Rondeau said.

“We’re seriously discussing it and we’re looking at options at how to get more (helmet) usage. We know that jurisdictions that have bike helmet laws have increased usage and so it is yet another tool.”

Manitoba is one of the few provinces that currently allows people to ride bikes without a helmet. Ontario and Alberta require protection for people under 18, while Nova Scotia, British Columbia and others require both children and adults to don helmets.

Doctors Manitoba, the provincial medical association, has told the government bike helmet laws reduce the number of head injuries that require hospitalization by as much as 45 per cent.

Rondeau knows that first-hand. He was involved in a collision with a vehicle last year while out riding his bike.

“I went sideways and hit my head and cracked my helmet. I know that if I was not wearing a helmet, I would have had a serious brain injury,” he said.

The NDP government has been under pressure to adopt a helmet law for years from opposition critics and health groups.

Researchers at the University of Manitoba and the University of Ottawa released a study in 2010 that said cyclists were much more likely to wear helmets in provinces where the headgear is mandatory.

Rondeau would not reveal details of his plan — whether the law would cover in-line skating and other activities, and what kind of fine or penalty might be levelled at offenders. He said the aim of the law would not be punitive.

“We don’t want to have police chasing kids to give them a ticket. What we’re trying to do is look at innovative approaches.”

Rondeau pointed to the introduction of car-seat legislation for children years ago. People who were found without a proper car seat for their child were given a chance to avoid a fine. They were given a few days to buy a car seat and show police the receipt.

The bill may come as early as the spring legislature session, which starts April 17.

Wearing helmets in Manitoba Cycling Association events is already mandatory for the 900 riders linked to the governing body, and president Jason Carter sees first-hand evidence of the wisdom of helmets. “Once or twice a year, I see riders take spills that toast their helmets.”

He hopes province-wide legislation wouldn’t become a barrier that prevents recreational riders from increasing their use of the healthy, inexpensive transportation. He cheers initiatives that subsidize the cost of helmets.

Mike Caslor has frequently commuted by bicycle from his home in Portage la Prairie to his job in Winnipeg, and he always wears a helmet for the 90-kilometre pedal.

He has no reservations about “the good public policy” of mandatory helmets.

“Asphalt can be an awfully hard hit for a head,” said the 33-year-old father of two, who once wiped out on Highway 232.

 

— The Canadian Press,

with files from Carl DeGurse