Cycle helmets for postal workers

The Communication Workers' Union is launching a campaign among postal workers to encourage the use of cycle helmets, following the deaths of six of its members last year, and serious injuries to over a hundred. In the UK in 1999, 172 cyclists were killed and 3,004 seriously injured in road accidents.

Every day around 33,000 postal workers take to the road on bicycles and the union wants to make cycle safety a major issue over the coming months.

"Our campaign will have two parts," says CWU Deputy General Secretary John Keggie. "We need to convince the Post Office that they should provide free helmets to anyone who uses a Royal Mail bicycle: and we need to convince our own members that it is in their interest to wear them. Many of our members - like many of the general public - think you look silly in a crash helmet. My point is that you look a lot worse dead."