Cycling without a helmet: no automatic complicity in accidents
The judges of the BGH gave a cyclist from Schleswig-Holstein right, the 2011 had been seriously injured in the head. She drove to work without a helmet when suddenly the door of a parked car opened in front of her. The plaintiff drove against the driver's door, crashed and contracted serious craniocerebral injuries. She demanded compensation from the car driver and her liability insurance. However, the Schleswig Higher Regional Court ruled that the cyclist was partly to blame for her injuries because she did not wear a cycling helmet. Their claim for damages should decrease in the opinion of the judges by 20 percent.
The BGH has now overturned the verdict. Cycling without a helmet does not lead to automatic complicity, as the wearing of a helmet is not mandatory.
For years, experts and cyclists have been arguing over the sense and nonsense of a bicycle helmet requirement. The German Society for Traumatology (DGU) recommends cyclists to wear a helmet even without legal obligation, because it can help to protect against a serious head injury in the event of a fall. In life-threatening injuries is the head with more than 70 percent, the most commonly affected part of the body? this is proven by data from the TraumaRegister DGU®.
The ADFC does not want to wear a helmet: "It has long been agreed by all experts and the German government that helmeting is neither enforceable nor controllable, but it would drastically reduce the use of bicycles and increase car traffic Responsible for health policy ", writes the Allgemeine Deutsche Fahrrad-Club e. V. on his website. Cyclists with headgear are also said to be more involved in accidents? either because they drive carelessly or because motorists take less account of allegedly protected cyclists. Similar to the introduction of the seat belt in 1976, the country is split in terms of helmet duty.
The acceptance of bicycle helmets in Germany is increasing only very slowly: according to figures from the Federal Highway Research Institute (bast), in 2013 just 15 percent of all cyclists wore a helmet - just two percentage points more than in 2012.
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