Doctors from the Gelderse Vallei Hospital in Ede are organizing a campaign to encourage bicycle helmets on ebikes. Neurologist somnologist Myrthe Boss took this action after she lost her mother to an ebike accident.
Hospital employees can get a bicycle helmet from their employer at a discount with this promotion. The doctors are driven to give the bicycle helmet a boost. They hope that helmets for cyclists will become more common in the streets. ‘Wearing a helmet can prevent a lot of suffering,’ says neurologist-somnologist Myrthe Boss against the local news site edestad.nl. Her mother fell at the end of 2019 when she was hit on her electric bicycle. Her head hit the curb. Two days later, her mother died of severe brain damage. Boss: ‘I have seen the scans and I know: a helmet could have absorbed the blow. I’m sure my mother’s chances would have been better if she had worn a helmet.’
Boss organized this action together with other doctors, including a trauma surgeon and a radiologist. Maastricht UMC+ has held a similar action, at the initiative of two intensivists. This promotion resulted in 1800 bicycle helmets sold, under the motto ‘Use your head, put on a helmet’.
Bicycle helmet mandatory or not
In June last year, the Central Planning Bureau and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency advised to make bicycle helmets mandatory on ebikes. Research shows that a helmet could save 45 deaths and 4500 injuries every year.
A poll of Plus readers showed that enthusiasm for the mandatory bicycle helmet is not big. More than 11,000 people responded to the statement: ‘There should be a helmet requirement for cyclists on an e-bike’ 68% of the readers disagreed with this statement. Cyclists with an ebike can choose for themselves whether they will wear the helmet or not, many readers responded.
Wearing a helmet on the ebike is therefore not mandatory. Last week, the cabinet a helmet requirement has been introduced for moped riders, this will take effect from July 2022.
