This summer I’ve noticed that more kids are on their bikes. It’s great to see kid’s on the trails, BMX track, bike paths and simply just riding around town. What I’ve also noticed is that most of these kids are without a helmet. Which has me thinking about the importance of helmets for children. My initial thought is to call out all their parents on Facebook and yell at them for not protecting their children.
In the past month I have seen the following:
- A young girl riding fast through an intersection. Did not stop or even slow down at the stop sign. No helmet.
- A child on his training wheels with no helmet going down a steep hill.
- A child that just learned how to ride a bike riding around town with no adult and no helmet.
- Kids jumping and riding fast at the BMX track with no helmet. I’ll also add most of them are on Wal Mart bikes. I cross my fingers for those kids every time those POS land.
But I’m not exactly the role model for 24/7 helmet use. While my 6 year old does not ride his bike without a helmet I never wear a helmet when running around town on my cruiser and I don’t put a helmet on my infant in the carrier(neck muscles can’t handle a heavy helmet yet). So I probably should not be out evangelizing the town. But there is a difference between an experienced adult cyclist on a cruiser not wearing a helmet and a child.
Here are some reasons to strap a properly fitting helmet on your child:
The Brain – My frontal cortex is fully developed. I think before I act (most of the time). I would not roll through an intersection at full speed without even thinking about the possibility of cars. But children’s brains are not fully developed yet. They don’t think through decisions and problems like an adult. Remember this when you send your child out on their bikes.
Ability – Children are just learning to ride their bikes. When my son was 3 he was riding on the bike path when he crashed and went over the handlebars. His helmet had a huge dent in it. We still had to go to the hospital for a few stitches in his chin but the helmet took the brunt of it. Children are not allowed to show up for soccer without shin guards, football and hockey without a helmet and pads; why should biking be different. The risk is as high for injury on a bike. Here are some scary statistics:
- More than 40 percent of all bicycle-related deaths due to head injuries and approximately three-fourths of all bicycle-related head injuries occur among children ages 14 and under.*
- Nearly 60 percent of all childhood bicycle-related deaths occur on secondary roads. The typical bicycle
crash with a motor vehicle occurs within one mile of the bicyclist’s home.* - Children ages 4 and under are more likely to be injured in non-street locations around the home (e.g.,
driveway, garage, yard) than are children ages 5 to 14.* - More children ages 5 to 14 are seen in hospital emergency rooms for injuries related to biking than any other sport.*
Effectiveness– Helmets work when used correctly. It is estimated that 75 percent of fatal head injuries among child bicyclists could be prevented with a bicycle helmet.*
Cost – The total annual cost of traffic-related bicyclist death and injury among children ages 14 and under is more than $2.2 billion. And for every dollar spent on a bike helmet saves society $30 in direct medical costs and other costs to society.*
Do I have you convinced? All that said, there are less than 200 kids a year that die in biking related deaths in the US. All of us are far more likely to die in a motor vehicle or from walking down the street than from riding a bike. Am I just cultivating fear? Recently there was an interesting TED talk about not wearing helmets by Copenhagen’s bicycle ambassador Mikael Colville-Andersen. It’s worth 16 minutes of your time. He has good analogies, research and stories about why we should not be overly concerned with helmet use.
But until my town has separation of motorists and cyclists, public awareness of cyclists, education and almost half of the town commuting by bike I will continue to insist my son wear his helmet.
What are your thoughts. Do you make your children wear helmets?
*National SAFE KIDS Campaign (NSKC). Bicycle Injury Fact Sheet. Washington (DC): NSKC, 2004.
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes! My daughter is not allowed to SIT on the bike without a helmet on. We do this partially because she is too young to make a conscious decision that “oh now the bike is moving and I need a helmet”, but mostly so that she always equates being on a bike with a helmet. To that end, I never get on a bike without my helmet on either, my cruiser included. We have to model the behavior we want to see in our children. Yes, wearing a bike on a cruiser is annoying, but it all it takes is an easy tip over or tap of a car for me to fall over and hit my head. My husband works for the fire department and he has scraped up numerous cyclists sans helmets off the road with head injuries. Most of them were close to home, just running to the store and hit a storm grate or were looking at a bird instead of the road.
I am not usually alarmist and I am a very laid-back mom, but we are extremely strict on helmet use- on the bike, on skis and rock climbing.
When my daughter was below the age of 1, she didn’t wear a helmet because her neck couldn’t support it. However, she was always inside her car seat strapped inside the bike trailer. Once she used the trailer normally, she was wearing a helmet.
I live in Portland and we have tons of bike infrastructure and a high awareness of bikes from drivers. Doesn’t matter- you still wear a helmet. Just because we have lots of infrastructure for cars doesn’t mean I don’t wear a seat belt.
Also, there is a bit of “helmet chic” here. I really want this cool new designer one… 🙂
This article is so correct! I work as a river guide, and we wont even allow you to get in the RAFT without a helmet on, and the consequences of falling out of a raft are, 99% of the time, just landing in water and getting wet with a laugh.
I cant believe the people I see zipping around without helmets in my town, oblivious to traffic.