Big cities against delay of mandatory helmets for scooter riders

The traffic aldermen of the four large Dutch cities are outraged by Infrastructure Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen's announcement that she will only submit a proposal to implement an nationwide helmet obligation for scooter riders in the spring of next year. They called on her to stop delaying and submit the proposal before Christmas, as parliament requested, to avoid further unnecessary injuries and increase road safety.

According to Aldermen Sharon Dijksma of Amsterdam, Robert van Asten of The Hague, Judith Bokhove of Rotterdam, and Lot van Hooijdonk of Utrecht, it has been shown time and again that scooter riders are vulnerable in traffic. Every year, dozens of scooter riders die in traffic accidents. And those who survive are often left with head and brain injuries that can have permanent consequences, they wrote in an open letter to the Minister.

Amsterdam already implemented a helmet obligation and this has shown that the measure is feasible and prevents injuries, the aldermen wrote. And yet, the Minister is dallying, they said. "She unnecessarily complicates the issue by expanding it to all kinds of new, fast, electric means of transport and gets bogged down in discussions about the types of helmet," they said.

They called the delay inexplicable, pointing out that helmets are already mandatory for comparable vehicles throughout Europe. "It is now up to the Minister to put an end to this as soon as possible."