It's been nagging at me for a while, so I wrote about it. Where do you stand on this issue?
Your turn:
- Do you wear a bicycle helmet when you ride? Why/why not?
- Do your kids wear them? Why/why not?
- Should people who refuse to ride with them be subject to higher insurance premiums to offset the additional risk? Would such differential treatment be fair?
One of the groups that I quoted in this piece, the Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals, has posted a reference to the column on its web site. Here's the link. Here's what they said:
ON - Too cool to wear a helmet? - Too bad!
Writing in the London Free Press, Carmi Levy indicates: "Ontario law states that every cyclist under the age of 18 must wear an approved helmet. Common sense would dictate anyone over that age would want to be similarly protected. Although every head injury is a terrible tragedy that changes individuals and families forever, let's talk dollars and cents for a bit. The Canadian Association of Road Safety Professionals (CARSP) estimates first-year costs for a brain-injured patient can reach $300,000. Post-hospital rehab will run another $125,000 annually, with the average lifetime cost for a head-injured patient averaging between $4 million and $9 million. And all because some people think they're too cool to wear a helmet."
For more on cycling safety and helmet use, see our Slick Clicks for June
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14 comments:
I'd make my kids wear them (if I had kids). I don't know how you would enforce it. I think educating kids and making it a commonplace thing would be the best way.
If seat belts can be required, helmets should be also. And if they won't wear a helmet, their insurance rates should be jacked up to the sky. Nothing makes more sense.
I also haven't ridden a bike in years, but I would not ride on a street without one. I see bikers cycling down busy streets without head protection and I am amazed. Audrey is just learning to ride her bike and she will never know what it is like to get on her bike without a helmet. As far as she is concerned the two are eternally linked.
And I don't know about insurance premiums, but I certainly think it should be a law that carries heavy fines and eventual impounding of bike when broken.
I have mixed feeling about bike helmets. I required one for my kid (consequently, he stopped riding his bike) but I hate them. There's that little voice in the back of my head that reminds me I grew up without one, I fell, I hit my head... It's amazing anyone of my generation actually survived when you consider all the safety things we didn't have.
Then there's that other voice that says "well what if you fell and hit your head HARD?" The helmet would make all the difference... Still, I hate them and I hate how overheated they make me feel.
I don't think insurance rates should be tied to helmet use, and I'm not sure laws should be inacted for anyone over age 18 requiring their use. At some point we have to stop legislating the crap out of things and let common sense prevail.
I grew up before bike helmets - I never wore one as a kid. As an adult I always wear one - not only to protect my head, but to set an example for my kids.
There are lots of kids out riding without them - I see them every day. It is because of them that I work so hard even at this young age to teach my kids that no helmet equals no riding. I know my kids will be tempted later to not wear them.
My kids always wear helmets if they're cycling or skating - we started when they were on trikes, and it wouldn't occur to them to argue about it. And when I rode a bike for the first time in 10 years, I wore a helmet. I also always wear my seatbelt.
I think helmet laws for kids are an absolute necessity - we have to protect them from as much as possible while they're too young to understand the ramifications of what they do. I think the issue of helmet laws for adults is a little fuzzier, mostly because I'm wary of a society that legislates every aspect of its citizens' lives. Yes, people who ride bikes without helmets are idiots. But so are people who dive into water of unknown depth, or run across busy roads at night, or cut down trees near power lines ...
Once they're legally adults, I don't know how far we should go to protect idiots from themselves. It's a slippery slope.
I haven't ridden a bike in a VERY long time, so can't really answer it from my stand point but when my children ride they WILL wear a helmet to protect them.
The kids were helmets if they are riding along the street, but not in the grass in the yard or field. I haven't ridden a bike in years so I don't wear a helmet;)
i also haven't ridden a bike in years, and, since my daughter is now 21, but got her driver's license at 16, she's never even looked at a bike since then! But she has never, ever ridden in a car without a seatbelt, since she's had 8 friends die in car accidents after drinking & without seatbelts!
LibbY!
I do wear a helmet. I don't have kids - but I made my dad start wearing one. In London (England) hospital emergency wards, cyclists are known as 'organ donors' because of the number of times they come in dead from head injuries with the rest of them in very good condition from all that cycling!
How are you going to increase the insurance rates of people who don't wear helmets?
It's a serious question. How are you going to identify those people? Would you, perhaps, increase someone's insurance rates if they were convicted of riding without a helmet?
Hi Carmi, I used to ride my oldest on the back of my mountain bike every morning for 10 miles and we both wore helmets. (Until a guy in a store recognized us and told me it was too cold for him in November, and I should stop!) If I'm just riding around town, I don't. In our state, kids have to wear them until 14 (I think) but my extremely style-conscious 13 year old is a struggle. My 8yo wears his. (It's the 13 yo who really needs one.) I don't think "insurance premiums" when I think about helmet and safety... But if I must, I'd say there should not be higher premiums, even if this could offset the additional risk! ;)
Hi. I don't ride a bike these days, but I would wear a helmet, because my sister was in a bad bike accident once.
My oldest daughter wears a helmet. My toddler barely rides a trike, but I know even on the tricycle we should put a helmet on.
Thanks for reminding me.
Yipes! That is a scary amount of money. But I wonder about that last line: all because some people thought they were too cool to wear a helmet. I don't know if it's that they think they're too cool...unfortunately I think it's because they're afraid they're not cool enough. At least that's what I see when I see my son choose the risk.
My cousin has brain damage from wearing a skull cap which broke during a motorcycle accident. He was always one to be concerned whether he appeared cool enough, now he doesn't know me and is a lawn mower mechanic instead of an airplane mechanic...and I'm sure it cost society lots of money for his rehab, but I never thought of it that way!
You've got me thinking...I will be bugging my Seth regularly - and he just got a new helmet. (A cool one) :)
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