§ 107. Sir J. Lucasasked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation if he is aware that light-weight motor-cycle crash helmets are being sold as safety helmets, whereas they are useless for the purpose; and if he will make it illegal to offer for sale so called safety helmets which do not reach an agreed standard of construction.
§ 108. Mr. George Thomasasked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation whether he is aware of the road tragedies caused by the sale of shoddy helmets to motor cyclists, who believe them to be safety helmets as advertised; and what steps he has taken.
§ Mr. Boyd-CarpenterA great deal of research has recently been undertaken into this subject by the Road Research Laboratory and others. Helmets complying with British Standards Specification 2001 of 1953 give excellent protection and although the complete figures are not available, it appears that a large majority of the helmets sold comply with this specification. In view of certain misunderstandings I would add that the fact that in a severe accident a helmet is damaged is no indication that it has failed to do its job. In fact a helmet so constructed that it did not give under very severe impact would be very dangerous. I have no powers to interfere with the sale of other makes of helmets but I would advise motor cyclists to buy those conforming with the British Standards Specification.