James Cracknell says cycle helmet saved his life - see his report on The One Show

As regular users of road.cc will be aware, the helmet debate is a contentious and divisive one even among the cycling community, let alone in the mainstream media. Last night, BBC One's The One Show, (click the link to watch it) included a segment looking at whether you should wear a helmet while on your bike.

The report presented by Olympic rowing champion turned adventurer James Cracknell, who attributes his surviving being hit by a truck while filming in the United States last year to the fact he was wearing a cycle helmet.

Earlier this year, Cracknell, who has been left suffering from issues such as short-term memory loss as a result of the accident, confessed that he had first got into the habit of wearing a cycle helmet while training for the Sydney Olympics as a result of the compulsory helmet laws in Australia.

The programme comes after the Daily Mail featured a piece on the pros and cons of wearing cycle helmets at the weekend which you can read here.

A private member's bill seeking to make the wearing of cycle helmets compulsory in Northern Ireland was voted through by assembly members there earlier this year despite opposition from the likes of Sustrans and CTC, although it has a long way to go to become law.

While cycle helmets are not compulsory in any part of the UK, politicians on the Channel Island of Jersey last year passed a law making it compulsory for under-18s to wear one while cycling. Proposals to make all cyclists wear a helmet, regardless of age, were defeated by just one vote.