1970 |
 Leather "hairnet" helmets are the only game in town.
- Snell Memorial Foundation introduces the world's first standard for bicycle helmets. It is so strict that only motorcycle helmets can pass it!
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1975 |
 Bell Auto Parts introduces the Biker helmet; sets the trend for polystyrene-lined hard-shell helmets. I believe Richard Ballantine still has one!
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1976 |
- Gerald Wilde presents "The risk compensation theory of accident causation and its practical consequences for accident prevention" at conference in Austria.
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1983 |
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1984 |
- Bell introduces the "Li'l Bell Shell" children's helmet, it's first no-shell design.
- ANSI Z80.4 standard introduced
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1985 |
- Snell B-85 standard introduced (my first helmet, a Bell Image, was certified to this standard).
- "Pedal Cycle Accidents in Great Britain" (Downing, TRRL) estimates potential reductions in injuries from various interventions at 27%, of which bicycle engineering & construction (including helmets) forms just 1%, the lowest of the seven interventions considered.
- John Adams publishes Risk and Freedom: The Record of Road Safety Regulation,which discusses the failure of seat belt laws to reduce casualties and promotes the idea of risk compensation.
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1986 |
- Michael Vaarten (Belgium) is the first rider to win the World Championship while wearing a helmet.
- Jim Gentes forms Giro company to market a no-shell design; Giro subsequently bought by Bell. The helmet was cloth-reinforced. Early all-polystyrene helmets had a tendency to catastrophic failure.
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1988 |
- Sweden reports first strangulation fatality due to a child being hanged by cycle helmet straps on play equipment.
- Reducing Bicycle Accidents: A Re-evaluation of the Impacts of the CPSC Bicycle Standard and Helmet Use (Rodgers GB. 1988. Journal of Products Liability: 1988,11:307-317) concludes that cycle construction standards have more benefit than helmets; and that helmeted riders are more likely to suffer fatal collisions. Based on around eight million injury records over 15 years, this may well be the largest helmet study.
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1989 |
- A case control study of the effectiveness of bicycle safety helmets (Thompson RS, Rivara FP, Thompson DC. 1989. New England Journal of Medicine: 1989 v320 n21 p1361-7) published; claims 85% reduction in head injuries and 88% in brain injuries. Commentary.
- BS 6863:1989 published.
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1990 |
 Snell B-90 standard introduced
- Victoria, Australia, introduces all-ages bicycle helmet law. Helmet use rises from 31% to 75%. In the first year 19,229 adults and 5,028 children are ticketed or fined for failure to wear a helmet. By 2003 this has hardly changed, with Victoria police estimating 20,000 tickets per year. The number of head injuries drops by 40%. Cycle counts in Melbourne show drops of over one third in the number of cyclists, rising to 46% of teenage cyclists in some areas. The proportion of cyclists' injuries which are head wounds looks as if it might have dropped slightly.
- In-mould microshell composite helmets become available - these are become the dominant type of helmet, replacing hard-shell types almost entirely, except for certain niche markets (e.g. BMX stunt riding).
- Bell begins a relationship with the Safe Kids campaign, a leading US promoter of helmets, which continues to this day.
- Around this time consumer surveys indicated that up to 90% of helmets on sale in the UK were certified to Snell B-90; by 1998 the number of Snell-certified helmets would drop to almost zero, according to the Consumers' Association.
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1991 |
- Bell splits off cycle helmet business to become Bell Sports; over the next decade and more this will become the dominant force in cycle helmets, buying up much of the competition.
- A prospective analysis of injury severity among helmeted and non helmeted bicyclists involved in collisions with motor vehicles (Spaite DW, Murphy M, Criss EA, Valenzuela TD, Meislin HW. 1991. Journal of Trauma: 1991 Nov;31(11):1510-6) published. Finds substantial behavioural differences between helmeted and unhelmeted cyclists: "We conclude that helmet nonuse is strongly associated with severe injuries in this study population. This is true even when the patients without major head injuries are analyzed as a group; a finding to our knowledge not previously described".
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1993 |
- Cycle helmets: the case for and against (Hillman M, Policy Studies Institute) published; establishes that the benefits of cycle use outweigh the dangers and that helmet promotion deters cycling to the overall detriment of public health.
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1994 |
- New Zealand introduces world's first national all-ages bicycle helmet law on Jan 1. It is vigorously enforced. Adult helmet use rises from 43% to 92%; average (all-ages) wearing rates rise to over 95%.
- Figures released from Victoria show that the percentage of cyclists' injuries which are head injuries has dropped by just 1.7% in the first two years of the helmet law, compared with 2.5% for pedestrians. It becomes clear that any helmet effect is swamped by other variables.
- Wilde publishes Target Risk.
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1995 |
- Snell B-95 standard introduced.
- Ontario introduces helmet law; amended during passage from all ages to exempt those 18 and over. Cycle use by children declined but soon recovered as the law was not enforced. Helmet use rises from 45% to 56%, but falls back, again due to non-enforcement. By 1999 wearing rates are back to pre-law levels, where they remain.
- Risk (John Adams, Routledge, ISBN 1857280687) published; raises the profile of risk compensation theory as an explanation for several otherwise problematic failures of safety interventions.
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1996 |
- Analysis of the failure of Australian and New Zealand laws to yield the promised benefits becomes more public.
- 40-year-old Kathy Francis imprisoned for 24 hours for not paying a spot fine after failing to wear a helmet in Victoria. She was six months pregnant at the time.
- British Columbia, Canada, introduces all-ages helmet law. Measurements in 1999 show a change in rider profile with 30% fewer cyclists in the 16-30 age range.
- Head Injuries and Bicycle Helmet laws (D L Robinson, Accident Analysis and Prevention, 1996, 28(4):463-475) published. Shows that the head injury trends for cyclists and pedestrians in road traffic collisions are similar, with no obvious effect from the helmet law; also shows that Increase in numbers wearing helmets were less than the decreases in numbers of cyclists, suggesting that the main effect of the Australian helmet laws was to discourage cycling rather than encourage cyclists to wear helmets.
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1997 |
- Brian and Paul Walker set up Head Protection Evaluations, an independent helmet testing laboratory on the former Snell site in the UK; they were formerly with Snell.
- EN 1078 helmet standard published; replaces BS 6869. This standard was essentially written by the manufacturers themselves.
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1999 |
- US Consumer Products Safety Commission introduces a mandatory standard for all helmets sold in the US. It is self-certified (no independent testing is required).
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2000 |
- Head injuries to bicycles and the New Zealand bicycle helmet law (Scuffham P, Alsop J, Cryer C, Langley JD. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2000;32,p565-573.) published. The authors state: "During preliminary analyses, we noted that the addition of a time-trend component caused the helmet wearing proportion to become insignificant". By ignoring this pre-existing downward trend the study concludes that the law has reduced cyclist head injuries by 19%. This is still well below pre-law predictions. Commentary.
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2001 |
- Hopus Technologies develops in-mould hard shell technique
- Helmets with adjustable cradles at the rear to hold them on better, begin to appear on the market.
- Provident Insurance threaten to counter-sue the parents of Darren Coombs, injured by a driver insured by Provident, as not wearing a helmet at the time. The case triggers the founding of the CTC' s Cyclists' Defence Fund, administered by trustees, to fight for cyclists' rights. Provident backs down in the face of overwhelming opposition from cyclists.
- Changes in head injury with the New Zealand bicycle helmet law (Robinson DL, Accident Analysis and Prevention 2001; 33:687-691) published. Described the statistical problems of fitting models relating head injury and helmet wearing percentages and extrapolating to predict effects of legislation. Abstract.
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2002 |
- Alberta, Canada introduces child-only helmet law. Percentage of child admissions due to cycling head injury rises from just over 5% to 10%.
- New Zealand bicycle helmet law - do the costs outweigh the benefits? (Taylor M, Scuffham P. Injury Prevention 2002; 8:317-320) published. Concludes that the New Zealand helmet law cost the country more in helmets than it saved in injury treatment, even ignoring any costs of reduced levels exercise, with only the youngest (5-12 years) experiencing a net benefit. Controversially assumes a 19% injury reduction and that the 86% pre-law wearing rate among these children was unaffected by the impending law. Commentary.
- Bicycle Helmet Research Foundation launches http://www.cyclehelmets.org.
- Department for Transport publishes Bicycle helmets: a review of effectiveness, written by a group largely comprising members and associates of the Child Accident Prevention Trust. Commentary.
- Helmets for preventing head and facial injuries in bicyclists (Thompson DC, Rivara FP, Thompson RS.. 2002. Cochrane Database Syst Rev: issue 4, 2002) published; four of the seven studies selected for review are by the authors themselves, and these dominate the findings. Authors dismiss risk compensation. Commentary.
- Alan Meale tables EDM 1783, drafted by BHIT, which contains serious factual inaccuracies including overstating the number of child cyclists seriously injured by a factor of well over 20. It cites the discredited 85% figure.
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2003 |
- Kazakh rider Andrei Kivilev dies of head injuries following a 45kph crash in the Paris-Nice race. Some suggest that increased risk-taking in the peloton is to blame. Despite this being well above the speed at which any helmet might be expected to work, and conflicting reports of whether the forehead or the base of the skull was broken, UCI pre-empt any investigation by promulgating mandatory helmet use for all races.
- The same year, two helmeted riders die in races. Cycle races, usually averaging out at less than one fatality annually, are having a bad year.
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2004 |
- Melbourne data shows 2.0% of journeys are by bicycle., compared with 3.4% pre-law.
- Eric Martlew MP (Lab., Carlisle) introduces "Protective Headgear for Young Cyclists Bill"; it falls on a procedural device having failed to achieve Government support. BHIT denounces the idea that cycle helmet laws deter cycling; Martlew denounces CTC as "loonies in Lycra" and Association of Cycle Traders as "cycling fascists". No cycling body supports the Bill.
- At least ten riders crash out of the Tour de France - the accident rate seems to increasing.
- BMA reverses anti-compulsion stance based on a report which is widely denounced as inaccurate and entirely one-sided. Claims include an inaccurate figure for the number of cyclists killed, and falsely claiming that the Ontario law
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Today |
- Not one single helmet of all the brands manufactured by Bell is certified to a Snell standard.
- No British court is known to have held that a cycle helmet would have made the difference in a case of serious injury or death
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