“There are so many unnecessary and preventable injuries due to bike accidents across the country and we would like to see less kids come through our emergency departments with those injuries,” said Dr. Jennifer Walthall an emergency medicine physician with IU School of Medicine.
Cyclists under the age of 16 accounted for 15 percent of all deaths in 2007. According to Traffic Safety Facts, 698 bike riders were killed and an additional 44,000 were injured in traffic crashes during the same year.
The common affliction among those slain was head injuries, stressing the importance of wearing a bicycle helmet.
Crown Hill Funeral Home and The Children’s Museum recently held bicycle safety fairs where free helmets and bicycle tips were given to the public. The fair’s goal was to make the community aware of the importance of being safe while riding.
Some of those bike safety tips included always wear a helmet when riding your bike; make sure your bicycle fits you – your feet should be able to touch the ground when you stop; ride in the daylight; concentrate on riding – don’t wear earphones or try to talk on a phone; don’t ride your bike on a busy road and parents should wear a helmet also.
“Most parents grew up in an age where they didn’t wear a helmet and they don’t understand the importance of it, so they pass that on to their kids. This fair was an opportunity to reach out to the families as a whole,” said Marty Davis public relations coordinator at Crown Hill Cemetery Funeral Home.
Statistics show using a bicycle helmet can greatly reduce the risk of a serious or deadly injury. According to the Center for Disease Control, head injuries are the leading cause of death in bicycle crashes. National statistics also show that the use of bicycle helmets can eliminate 65 to 88 percent of serious injuries to the upper and middle regions of the face.
According to Walthall, some of the reasons youth do not wear a bicycle helmet is because parents, teachers or the community may not enforce it. Another factor could be the cost of a bike and a helmet, which may get expensive. The “being cool” issue also is an aspect of why a helmet may not be worn.
“Messing up your hair may be a pain when riding your bike around,” added Walthall. “But I would certainly rather redo my hair, then have a head injury that may leave me with long lasting consequences.”
An additional motive to why bicycle helmets are disregarded may result in the federal law not enforcing their usage.
There are no bicycle helmet use laws in 29 states. Reports show there is no federal law in the U.S. requiring bicycle helmets and no state has a universal helmet law. Fourteen states have no statewide or local helmet laws, including Indiana. If universal bicycle laws were enforced and validated it would prevent between 40,000 and 50,000 head injuries a year for kids ages four to 15.
“Its such an easy and inexpensive intervention. It just makes common sense that at least children who cannot make these kind of decisions for themselves, should have to wear a helmet,” said Walthall.
