Road Safety

Mandatory helmets for cyclists studied at Queen's Park

A private member's bill on the subject is being promoted by MPP Dianne Cunningham of London.

By ANNE-MARIE TOBIN
Canadian Press

TORONTO - When groups pushing for mandatory use of bicycle helmets in Ontario approached Dianne Cunningham, they had a receptive audience.

The London North Conservative MPP has spent seven years helping her son Kevin recover from a head injury suffered in a car accident when he was 14.

"What you want to do if you ever experience this is make sure it never happens to anyone else's child," said Cunningham.

She is steering a private member's bill through the legislature that would amend the Highway Traffic Act and require cyclists to wear helmets. The bill has already been approved in principle and is being studies by an all-party committee, a legislative stage rarely reached by private members' bills.

Cunningham says a two-year lead time would allow helmet manufacturers and the public to prepare for implementation in October, 1993.

The committee has already heard some dramatic testimony.

Jeremy Rempel of the Ontario Head Injury Association told of being hit by a pickup truck while bicycling on his ninth birthday 11 years ago. Today he lives with severe headaches, tires easily and has no peripheral vision on his left side.

"I spent four months in total in the hospital.... The doctors had to put me into a coma to remove part of my skull to let the brain swell."

Each year in Canada, more than 5,000 children are seriously injured and more than 60 die in bicycle accidents, most from head injuries, said Cunningham.

Studies have shown only two to three per cent of children wear helmets while experts say helmet use could reduce head injuries by 85 per cent.

SOME OPPOSED: But some cyclists are opposed to legislation.

Marcia Ryan cycles every day in Toronto and encourages others to do the same to cut down on pollution.

"To shift the responsibility of safety away from motorists, from urban planning and from the general non-recycling mentality does not advance the cause of cycling," she told the committee.

The Ontario Cycling Association supports the use of helmets but thinks public education, rather than legislation, is the way to go.

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Page last updated on April 28, 2002