Remember kids... always wear a helmet. (The almighty bikeradar helmet thread)

Erm... obviously the more important thing here is the driving, but one can as an individual control whether or not you wear a helmet but one cannot influence how every other person on the road drives. Very important distinction. When advising government on what to do I would agree that 100% of the enrgy should go into trying to prevent bad driving.

3rd last paragraph is interesting (shit). "I know that had Hannah not been wearing her helmet on Tuesday morning, this could be a totally different incident" (fair enough). "her helmet really did save her life" (not fair enough, COULD be different and certainty of a helmet being responsible for her life are very different things, why make too utterly different assertions one after the other?)

He then goes on to talk about proper protective clothing. I wounder what other proper protective clothing his daughter was wearing? full downhill body armour? Or bugger all and he's just made a vague bullshitty statement?

But perhaps the most intersting thing here is the accident itself. Have we any idea whether the lights were in her favour or the van's? Assuming that she was in the right (as far as the lights go) then the child was walking across the pelican crossing legally (in which case the father should be advocating peds wear helmets). If she was cycling then it seems that the father's priority should be teaching his kid the highway code, and it also seems to me perfectly possible that she came out quickly, potentially from a path hidden behind a hedge, which might help explain why the van hit her. (Obviously the van should have been taking care at school time near a crossing, whether the light was green or red and whether he could see anyone or not, but it is possible that her cycling where she should not have been cycling contributed.

A toucan crossing is similar to a pedestrian crossing but also allows allows bicycles.