Bicycle Helmet Initiative Trust



The Bicycle Helmet Initiative Trust (BHIT, ironically pronounced BeHIT) is a group of helmet zealots based in Reading, headed by non-cyclist Angela Lee. They are Britain's leading helmet compulsion promoters and are remarkably influential, despite having been caught out in numerous distortions and even outright fabrications. The phrase "economical with the truth" springs to mind. BHIT are zealots. It's not that they can't see the other side of the argument, they simply refuse to acknowledge that another side exists. They are in the vanguard of policy-based evidence making for cycle helmets in the UK.

BeHIT are fond of portraying themselves as committed to the safety of young cyclists, and to reducing the toll of head injuries to children, but these claims are weakened by the fact that they restrict themselves entirely to promoting cycle helmets, avoiding both prevention of collisions (surely far better then trying to mitigate their effects) and the far more numerous injuries suffered by non-cycling children.

What's wrong with BeHIT
Their cardinal sin as far as I am concerned is their cynical exploitation of the families of injured and killed children, even where there is abundant evidence that other interventions may have been effective while helmets likely would not. It seems, from reports received from previous victims, that they proactively contact these families in a manner reminiscent of Paul Newman's seedy ambulance-chasing lawyer in The Verdict.

Other problems with their approach include distortion and sometimes outright invention, including inventing a figure for child fatalities which assumes an 80% non-reporting rate. More credible estimates put the likely under reporting of child fatalities at zero, which is somewhat more plausible. Overall they are a classic single-issue group, with the usual arse-backwards approach: here is a solution, how can we frame the problem such that it appears to be big enough to require solving, and so that our solution may be seen as the right one. Riding round Düsseldorf recently I noticed very few helmets, and many children cycling. I saw no fat kids at all, though I'm sure there must be some.

To be fair to Angela Lee, she is sincere (in a single minded "true believer" style) and often a very effective operator, although her style is reported to be abrasive to the point of downright rudeness (and that according to those who have been supportive of her). It is a shame that she has chosen to exercise her skills in the service of a single issue which distracts attention away from the wider safety agenda, rather than join with those who are working to make cycling - and the roads on which we cycle - safer. I suppose she genuinely must believe that wearing a helmet is the first, best thing a cyclist can do for their safety, and since any attempt to inform her otherwise is apparently met with a tirade, it is unlikely that she will ever learn any better.

Their twin themes are think of the children! and bike danger! - this group is politically astute and quite dangerous, as they are expert users of emotive language and quite remarkably cynical in their manipulation of the misfortune of others. They are known to have pursued the parents of injured children to try to recruit poster children, and several people who have started to work with them have radically reassessed their views as it has become apparent how cynical BeHIT can be.

BeHIT are largely responsible for the Troy Parker campaign, where the death of a child riding a bicycle with defective brakes off the pavement into the path of a car is used as a siren call for helmet compulsion.

Irony
BeHIT are immune to irony. They hired Jeffrey Archer for their last fundraiser. One would have thought that being associated with someone famous for lies, deceit and self-serving political manoeuvrings would have been too much, but apparently the fee was sufficient that Archer was prepared to stomach this.