Wear your helmet: it will save your life

Dear Sir,
The story had the following stand-first: “They were not wearing helmets”, and continued with the main headline: “Two fatalities…”

After the recent tragedies which have brought Cyprus to its knees this summer, the above story just ran without much ado in the newspapers.

The roads of Cyprus claim two more lives. In another little corner of a newspaper, a paid advertisement by the Police Traffic Department advises: “No to Death, Yes to Life”.

What we must all understand is that the reduction of fatal motor accidents depends on all of us, anyone who drives a vehicle.

As far as motorbikes are concerned, I find it inconceivable that in the year 2005, in a European country there are still motorbike owners who do not wear their helmets.

European research has shown that the use of a helmet reduces by half the risk of serious or fatal head injury. Figures suggest that if the legislation was followed by all, 1000 lives would be saved throughout Europe.

Let us all think about that: 1000 lives… even if it meant saving just one life isn’t the cost and the trouble of wearing a helmet worth it?

Katie Clerides, MP
Head of Citizen’s Initiative for Road Safety

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.