Bike
Accident Lawyer
Bike
Helmet Safety
Every year
during the warm months, I get contacted by an injured
bicyclist. Some of those cases are catastrophic because
the victim was not wearing a helmet, or was wearing
a helmet but it was either outdated or did not fit properly.
I must admit that it wasn't until I became involved
in these types of cases that I truly understood how
dangerous it is to ride a bicycle without a helmet.
To understand
the full magnitude of bicycle injury cases, we must
first understand that there are 85 million bicycle riders
in the United States. In 2005, 720 bicyclists died in
crashes with motor vehicles, and about 540,000 visited
emergency rooms with some form of injuries. Of those,
27,000 had injuries which were serious enough to be
hospitalized.
It is a fact
that properly fitting helmets have been shown to reduce
serious head injuries by 85%. Couple this with the fact
that 39% of all deaths from cycling injuries occur in
children under the age of 15, and it becomes clear why
wearing a helmet is so important. Most people wrongly
believe that wearing a helmet is only important if you
bike on a road where there are cars and trucks; but
in reality most injuries occur - especially with children
- during low speed falls.
When you
buy a helmet, make sure it looks good on you because
if you don't, you won't wear it. Helmets come in all
different colors, shapes, and sizes. Only buy a helmet
that meets the bicycle helmet safety standards of the
Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). If the helmet
meets the standards it will be labeled inside. All helmets
manufactured or imported after March 1999 must comply
with the CPSC standards, and older helmets should be
certified by the American Society for Testing and Materials
(ASTM) or Snell Memorial Foundation.
Helmets must
be the right size or they will not work. They should
be worn on top of the head covering the top of the forehead,
and should never be tipped back. If the helmet moves
around or slides down around your eyes, adjust it to
make it tighter. When you buy a helmet for your child,
keep in mind that it will come with removable fitting
pads. These can be removed as your child's head grows,
so the helmet will last for years.
Please
remember these tips before you hop on a bike this weekend.
It's smart for you, it's smart for your child, and it's
the law!
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