The Bicycle Helmet Initiative Trust is a World Health Organisation Co-operating Helmet Initiative supported by the British Orthopaedic Association, the Children’s Brain Injury Trust, Headway, the Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health FOUNDED four years ago by paediatric nurse, Angela Lee, The Bicycle Helmet Initiative Trust is the UK’s only cycle helmet promotion charity.

Nationally just 17 per cent of youngsters under the age of 16 wear a helmet even though they are 20 times more likely to be involved in a cycling accident than adults. However, in designated sites run by the Trust in Reading, Derby and Southampton, the helmet-wearing rate has increased dramatically. In Reading helmet ownership has increased from 23 per cent to 69 per cent and there has been a fall of 45 per cent in the number of youngsters being admitted to hospital with cycling related head injuries. In Derby the number of youngsters wearing helmets has risen from 21 per cent to 32 per cent and in Southampton from 23 to 34 per cent.

Such success is achieved by working closely with road safety officers, the police, health promotion units, schools, parents and the youngsters themselves. Focus groups with teenagers have helped the Trust to understand young people’s resistance to wearing helmets, namely peer pressure and fashion. Using information gathered at these groups, the Trust has produced information that is accessible to youngsters including 10,000 copies of a full colour, glossy A3 leaflet and poster. The Trust has also sold several hundred copies of a video it produced entitled “Happy Birthday, Paul” and run competitions on national TV.

Since March this year the Trust has also been working closely with its new patron, the Formula One racing star David Coulthard. He is a very keen cyclist, supporter of cycle helmets and a popular figurehead, particularly with teenage boys. Fifty per cent of all cycling accident casualties are children under the age of 16 and within this figure, teenage boys account for 70 per cent of all major casualties. Teenagers believe roads are the danger spots and there is no need to wear helmets off road except when participating in “high risk” activities such as mountain biking. However, figures reveal that only 8,000 of the 22,500 head injuries sustained by children will take place on a road with just 400 of them involving another vehicle. The majority of accidents take place off road.

Properly worn, bicycle helmets have been shown to reduce the risk of head injury by 85 per cent and the risk of brain injury by almost 90 per cent. As we are all too aware young people don’t like being forced to do things even if it is for their own benefit. However, if they are given the relevant information they can make up their own minds and are more likely to wear helmets. Therefore, the Trust has recently published a 35-page guideline document that includes all the latest information on how to set up a community based bicycle helmet programme that will be used by schools, colleges, road safety officers and health professionals.

It has been distributed to every road safety unit and health promotion department in England and Wales. Research has shown that those teenagers who have taken part in an educational programme had a more favourable attitude towards helmets than teenagers who had not had exposure to such a programme. The aim of this and all the Trust’s educational programmes is to reduce the needless waste of young people’s lives for the sake of a £10 cycle helmet.


The Bicycle Helmet Initiative Trust
(registered charity no: 1069476)
First Floor
43-45 Milford Road
Reading
Berkshire RG1 8LG
Telephone: 0118 958 3585 Fax: 0118 956 8424
Email: BHIT@dial.pipex.com
Website address: www.BHIT.org