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While wearing a helmet is not mandatory. But who is driving without a helmet, in head injury has a complicity – decided the Schleswig-Holstein High Court in a landmark judgment
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around 70 million bicycles are in Germany, almost every second German runs several times a week with the bike now, almost 15 percent of all trips in this country are covered by bike. But only about one in ten German wears a bicycle helmet. That could change after a ruling by the Schleswig-Holstein Civil Division: The judge ruled that cyclists wear the blame in a collision with another road user when they are on the road without a helmet, this would have prevented their head injuries or mitigated. This also applies to verkehrswidrigem behavior of the other party, then decided the 7th Civil Division of the Higher Regional Court of Schleswig-Holstein (judgment of 5 June 2013; Az 7 U 11/12)
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For cyclists, although there is no helmet law, according to the grounds, but they were at particular risk of injury in daily traffic. There is no doubt that a helmet protects against head injuries, also was the acquisition economically reasonable.
“Therefore, in principle, be assumed according to the current state of knowledge, that a wise man will wear a helmet when cycling to avoid damage suffered,” the Court of Appeal reasoned judgment.
ADFC doubts the judgment
text is contradicted by the association ADFC cyclists who calls the verdict “surprising”. Spokesman René Filippek assumes that the verdict in a review before the Federal Court should not stand. “So far, the case went in a different direction. Because a helmet there is not, and only ten percent of cyclists wear in everyday life actually a helmet. Conclusion can hardly be derived, it is a general standard to be traveling with a helmet,” says Filippek, whose association is in favor of a general helmet.
The hurdle to use the bicycle transportation, should not be increased. For where many cyclists are traveling, for instance in the Netherlands or in Denmark, there were significantly fewer accidents – simply because motorists are much more used to cyclists. In addition, you can protect cyclists more effectively with other measures such as its own wheel tracks, especially the protective effect of helmets is often relatively low.
cyclists frequently injured in accident on head
In this specific case, the applicant was driving with her bike without a helmet on the road on a car parked on the roadside over. The car driver opened the door directly in front of the cyclist. The cyclist could not avoid and fell. She withdrew a severe traumatic brain injury.
In more than half of all accidents involving cyclists they are injured on the head. The ADAC has analyzed more than 12,000 traffic accidents involving 2005 and 2012. Thus, 54 percent of cyclists injured in accidents to the head. For pedestrians, there are only 42 percent, with 32 percent of motorists, motorcyclists are at 25 per cent that are affected by head injuries.
Adding up all bicycle accidents in Germany – not just those in which a helmet would have helped – some 76,000 injured cyclists were registered in 2011. The number of road deaths in 2012 to around 400
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