“We want to make people who don’t wear helmets look the stupid ones”: Sister of teenage cyclist killed in collision with overtaking driver calls
for mandatory cycle helmet law

However, a road safety expert stressed that “helmets alone do not prevent crashes” and called on the government to invest in safe cycling infrastructure
by RYAN MALLON
THU, MAY 02, 2024 17:21

The sister of a teenage cyclist who was killed after being struck by an overtaking driver, causing him to hit his head on a kerb, has called on the government to make wearing a helmet while cycling a legal requirement,
telling her school assembly that “I just wish my big brother had a helmet on” the night he died.

A road safety expert, meanwhile, has responded to the youngster’s campaign
by noting that, while cycle helmets can lessen the risk of traumatic brain injury in a collision, they “alone do not prevent crashes from happening” and that safer infrastructure is key to preventing fatal collisions.

[linked article] Why is Dan Walker’s claim that a bike helmet saved his
life so controversial?

15-year-old Riley Ketley was cycling with friends to the shops in the
Yorkshire village of Molescroft, Beverley, on 8 April 2021 when he was
struck from behind by a motorist who had allegedly “sped up” to overtake the group. Riley suffered a serious head injury in the crash and died hours later in hospital.

“There was just no saving him. He had a head injury to the front of his
head and a head injury to the back. He’d hit the car the front ways and he’d hit the back of it on the kerb,” Riley’s mum VJ told the BBC (link is
external) today.

At the inquest which followed the teenager’s death, a friend who was
cycling behind Ketley – who had been told he had been accepted into the
Royal Marines earlier that day – told investigators that he had pulled out into the middle of the road, as the driver of a Honda Civic “sped up as if overtaking”, leading to the collision.

The motorist, who said he felt “absolutely terrible” about the incident, claimed that he’d moved to the right to give the youngsters as much room as hospital, the Yorkshire Post (link is external) reported in 2022. He said
the group had seen him and moved over to the adjacent cycle lane, when
Riley pulled out.

“There was absolutely no warning at all, and I had no chance to stop and avoid a collision,” the driver told the inquest.

After extensive inquiries, the police concluded that there was insufficient evidence to charge the motorist, with a forensic collision investigator determining that there was no evidence of excessive speed and that the
crash was “unavoidable”.

[linked article] "I had cyclists telling me I was a disgrace for saying my helmet saved my life": Dan Walker recalls helmet backlash after being
knocked off bike by driver

And this week, Riley’s younger sister Amelia, now 12, has urged all
cyclists to wear helmets while riding their bikes, in order to help prevent
the serious head injuries suffered by her brother

“I just wish my big brother had a helmet on that night,” Amelia told her school assembly this week, as part of her campaign, which includes handing
out helmets to classmates.

The 12-year-old, who said losing her brother at the age of nine was a
traumatic experience, told the BBC that wearing a helmet while cycling
should be mandatory by law, in a similar manner to using a car seatbelt.

“We want to make the people who don’t wear helmets look the stupid ones,” she said. “But people don’t wear helmets and you want them to just automatically put them on instead of people having to tell them to put them on.”

[linked article] Government shuts down mandatory cycling helmets question
from Conservative MP

In December 2022, the Department for Transport insisted that the government
has “no intention” to make wearing a helmet while cycling a legal requirement.

Addressing a written question from a fellow Conservative MP, the
then-minister of state for the department, Jesse Norman, said the matter
had been considered “at length” during the cycling and walking safety review in 2018.

Norman also added that while the Department for Transport “recommends that cyclists wear helmets”, the “safety benefits of mandating cycle helmets are likely to be outweighed by the fact that this would put some people off cycling”.

[linked article] Australia’s mandatory helmet laws "have become a tool of disproportionate penalties and aggressive policing" say researchers

Responding to Amelia’s campaign for a helmet law, Steve Cole, the director
of policy, campaigns, and public affairs at The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), noted that other factors – such as infrastructure – are more critical to ensuring the safety of cyclists on
the roads than helmets.

“While everyone has the right to choose whether they wear a helmet, the evidence shows us that they can more than halve the risk of a traumatic
brain injury,” Cole said.

“However, it’s important to note that helmets alone do not prevent crashes from happening, and poor infrastructure can often be to blame for collisions.”

Cole also called on the government to “publish its long overdue road safety strategy and to invest in safe infrastructure”.

<https://road.cc/content/news/sister-teenage-cyclist-killed-calls-helmet-law-308169>





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