Cyclists make joint call for Ministerial intervention

national | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Tuesday June 22, 2004 15:32 by Shane Foran - Irish Cycling Campaign - Feachtas Rothaiochta na hEireann galwaycyclist at yahoo dot co dot uk Dublin CC: http://www.connect.ie/dcc, Galway CC: http://www.eirbyte.com/gcc, Cork CC:http://indigo.ie/~woz/ccc 087 9935993

Utility and Sports Cyclists make historic joint call for ministerial intervention against "Safety Council". According to cyclists, National Safety Council has displayed "gross insensitivity" to the feelings of those who have lost children in fatal accidents.

Cycling Ireland, the main sports cyclists' body and the Irish Cycling Campaign, the umbrella body for commuter/transportation cycling groups took joint action this week in what may be a historic first in Ireland. The two groups jointly contacted the Minister for Transport to seek his intervention in curbing the behaviour of the National Safety Council. The longstanding acrimony between cyclists and the NSC exploded into outright hostility last month when the NSC called for a compulsory cycle-helmet law. The NSC based this call on sources that are all disputed and/or discredited. Within hours, detailed rebuttals were issued by cycling experts undermining all the NSC's claims.

Despite this, the NSC's claims have remained on their website and in printed leaflets. The main cycling groups have now written to the minister arguing that serious questions arise regarding the NSC's competence in matters of road safety. The cyclists also raise the question of whether the NSC has deliberately sought to mislead the public. The NSC has caused particular offence by trying to proclaim cycle-helmets as "life saving" equipment. Cycle helmets are neither intended, nor expected, to protect in impacts with moving motor-vehicles: the main case of cyclist fatalities. This fact is baldly stated in the NSC's source material, but not in their own public claims. According to the cyclists, this raises the question of whether the NSC has even read, or else is deliberately misrepresenting, their own sources.

The cyclists suggest that as a result of the NSC's public comments, the parents of children killed in impacts with moving motor vehicles are left asking themselves whether the deaths of their loved one might have been prevented. Worse still, say the cyclists, the parents of such children could find themselves accused of being culpable in such deaths where helmets were not worn. However, the NSC's own sources indicate that such a benefit is highly unlikely. According to the cyclists, the NSC has displayed, and is continuing to display, a gross insensitivity to the feelings of those who have lost their children in such tragic circumstances.

The cyclists have described the NSC's behaviour as grossly offensive and have asked the minister to direct that the NSC issue a full public apology and to direct that the NSC retract the various claims it has made regarding helmets.

ENDS
ICC Regional contacts
David Maher (086) 347 5357 PRO of the Irish Cycling Campaign (Dublin)
Shane Foran 087 9935993 PRO of the Irish Cycling Campaign (Galway)
Darren McAdam-O'Connell 021 4899970 PRO of the Irish Cycling Campaign (Cork)

Full text of Cycling Ireland/ICC letter
http://www.eirbyte.com/gcc/ICC_letter_SBrennan.doc

Leaflet on cycle helmet laws
http://www.cyclenetwork.org.uk/latest/doc/helmet_law2.pdf

The Cyclists' experience of the Australian helmet laws
http://www.eirbyte.com/gcc/submission/oz_experience.html