Cyclist killed in Olympic Park: BBC Northampton interview

Following the bus accident which killed a cyclist in the Olympic Park on 1 August, 2012, I was asked to be on the BBC Northampton Breakfast show to talk about cycle safety, and helmet law.

This is something I have spoke about many times before, and I still feel very strongly that the cycle lawys shoudl be addressed.

BBC radio Northampton: Stuart Linnell at Breakfast

We are talking this morning about cycling safety after a cyclist died last night near the Olympic park. He was hit by a shuttle bus carrying journalists. A Man was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and has since been bailed. Bradley Wiggins the Olympic Gold medallist was speaking in a news conference afterwards and said that the issue of cycling safety remains important. He called for cycle helmets to be made compulsory and said it should be illegal for cyclists to be riding around listening to music from iPods.

Melanie Ryding is a Northamptonshire triathlete and Melanie. You say a helmet saved your life, is that right?

I would say it did, yes.

What happened?

I was out on a regular training ride in the nearby villages. It was an ordinary day, it was raining a little bit, I was dressed accordingly in a high vis jacket and was wearing a helmet. I was just about to negotiate a roundabout, and the next thing I can tell you is that I was waking up in hospital about 90 minutes later.

And if you hadn’t had the helmet on?

Well, who knows. I suffered from concussion and the world spun round for about eight weeks. It almost jeopardised my chances of competing in the World Championships that year and I lost about 6 months of training because I couldn’t move, literally, because the room was spinning round. Now that’s whilst I had a helmet on, who knows what would have happened if I didn’t. My helmet was smashed into three pieces.

So you think Bradley Wiggins got it right do you?

Well I think he is talking a lot of sense. Perhaps it takes somebody like him for people to look at this issue. I have been saying helmets need to be compulsory for a long time now, but there are a lot of people that argue it both ways. There are a lot of people who don’t think it makes any difference either way. Now, one of the comments Bradley Wiggins made in the Daily Mail: he said if you haven’t got a helmet on and something happens to you how can you possibly argue if you haven’t protected yourself in the first place.

You are a teacher aren’t you Melanie, you must see pupils come to school on cycles, do they wear helmets?

I was down on the cycle time trial course yesterday in Cobham. When we were trying to get the roads closed an hour before the race there was an awful lot of cyclists around then. A lot of them were not wearing helmets. A lot of them had iPods in or on the phone, like you were mentioning earlier. I often see families of cyclists and the children are made to wear helmets but the parents aren’t, and sometimes event the children are not wearing helmets.

So these were cyclist that were turning up to watch the Olympic time trial and you saw them doing exactly the things that Bradley Wiggins said they shouldn’t be doing?

Absolutely, yes

Let’s just hear what Bradley himself had to say

(recording) ‘Legalising helmets, making the law to wear. Shouldn’t be riding along with iPods and phones and things on. When a law is passed for cyclists then you can say well I have done everything to be safe’

So that is the point that you were making. At least if you have done your bit then people cant point the finger at the cyclist

No absolutely. There are a lot of people that don’t do their bit and that is what the people who have been sending you messages have been talking about. It’s much like motorcyclists and car drivers, there is always a few that will give a bad name to the many.

Here are a couple of comments we have had in the last couple of minutes. Mike from Kettering says ‘I don’t think helmets should be made compulsory they should be encouraged. If car drivers and cyclist learned how to share the road we would see far less deaths’. Brian pointed out ‘we are going to see a lot more cyclists around because of Bradley’s success, many aren’t wearing helmets, but a lot of motorists are inconsiderate as well’.  It cuts both ways doesn’t it?

It does indeed. Bradley comment was ‘cyclists are never going to go away however much drivers moan and as much as cyclists moan about certain drivers they are never going to go away so there has to be a bit of give and take’ and he is absolutely right.

You see we were talking earlier on about this new green way cycle path in Northamptonshire, we were talking to Colin Granger from CTC, the UK national cycle organisation. When I put the question to him about cycle helmets he said ‘no I don’t think they should be made compulsory it should be up to the individual to decide’.

You could argue the same thing about car drivers and seat belts. I bumped into James Cracknell in service station near here a while back and I asked him about this whole helmet safely thing. His comment to me was motorists, when they were first made to wear seatbelts, argued about it but now they just get on with it.

Yes, it’s the first thing you do when you sit in the car, you just put your belt on automatically don’t you?

Yes

And you think the same thing should apply to cyclists with their helmets. Just as a matter of course, you put it on before you even get on the bike?

Absolutely. I have always done that and when I first started cycling I did think like a lot of people do, this helmet looks stupid, it makes me look funny, it will wreck my hair,  and all those things. But, in triathlon cycling with a helmet is compulsory so I just did it because that is the rule in the sport that I was taking part in and I just accept it as normal now.

And what about your sport at the moment Melanie?

I recently found out that I have got onto the Great Britain team for the World Championships in New Zealand this year, which is a huge feat for me because of my head injury last year and all the training that I lost over the winter. I am feeling incredibly please with myself.

Well congratulations. A lot of people I recon as a consequence of what you and Bradley and other people are doing will be getting on their bikes. Melanie, thank you so much for joining us on the programme this morning.

Thank you