|
Use Your Helmet and Your Head
11/10/2007
About 44,000 people die in car crashes in the
United States each year; about 1 in 54 is a bicyclist.
-- www.bicyclesafe.com
I recently saw a news report about courageous children
calling 9-1-1 to report their parent driving drunk. Riding a bike without a
helmet is like getting in a car with a drunk driver behind the wheel.
Not a safe or smart decision. But sometimes “safe” and
“smart” doesn’t always mean “cool” from a child’s perspective, notably teens. I
have three so I can speak from experience. I know first hand the constant push
and pull of instructing my sons to wear their helmets when riding their bikes
and skateboards. “But Mom, it’s just not cool. Nobody wears helmets!” My
response, “Well, I didn’t give birth to ‘Nobody’. I gave birth to you and I care
about your life.”
The Consumer Product Safety Commission and the American
Automobile Association conducted a survey in 1995 to interview 282 children to
find out the reasons they did not like wearing a helmet. The survey project was
designed to find ways to encourage more kids to wear bicycle helmets. More than
half the children suggested redesigning the look of the helmet as a way to
increase helmet usage, such as sports designs, race drivers’ numbers and names
on the helmet. Girls suggested making helmets that you could wear with a pony
tail. Most of the children, however, complained about how the helmet fit
indicating that it felt uncomfortable. Many disliked the chin strap and others
had problems with the inside of the helmet. Some complained that helmets made
them sweat.
Lastly, many of the children surveyed suggested using the
mass media and/or role models, such as showing a commercial of a famous person
wearing a helmet so kids could use them as role models. Many of the children
indicated that they understood the importance of wearing a helmet. When asked
what would happen if they did not wear a helmet, they responded by saying you
could get paralyzed, suffer brain damage or even be killed. The survey revealed
that 44 percent of the children seldom or never wore a bicycle helmet. Many of
the children suggested making it a law to wear a bicycle helmet. Smart kids
using their heads.
Cool helmets do abound though. I found some “cool” helmets
at Target for $15, which range in price from about $7 to $21. At the Academy
Sports & Outdoors, the helmets range in price from about $8 to $30. Better yet,
www.prorider.com lists a number of bike helmets for children for as low as
$2.95! It’s much cheaper to pay for a child’s helmet, than to pay with their
life.
My cousin buried his 16 year old step son two weeks ago. He
was killed by a truck while riding his bike on a busy street during rush hour
traffic. I was so saddened and deeply disturbed by his death that I couldn’t
sleep for days. In addition to a profound sense of loss, I felt an obligation to
write this column to encourage parents, teachers and children to wear helmets.
Health teachers are required to teach bicycle safety under
the Health Education Texas Essential of Knowledge and Skills [TEKS] objectives
for the elementary grade levels. For example, one of the third grade Health
Education TEKS objectives includes the following:
Health behaviors. The student recognizes and performs
behaviors that reduce health risks throughout the life span. The student is
expected to: (A) explain the need for obeying safety rules at home, school,
work, and play such as bike safety and avoidance of weapons.
Here are some tips on “how not to get hit by a car” – in
addition to wearing a properly fit bicycle helmet at all times:
- Avoid busy streets…take the route with fewer and
slower cars and avoid rush hour traffic. Cyclists may “have the right to the
road”, but cars are always bigger and faster.
- Light up…bike shops have “red blinkies” for about $15
or less. Headlights are just as important as rear lights. Look for the new
kind with LEDs since they last ten times as long on a set of batteries as
older model lights.
- Take the whole lane when appropriate…riding a bit to
the left prevents you from being a victim of the “door prize” [see web site
at
www.bicyclesafe.com]
According to the web site, there are risks to both riding to the extreme
right as well as taking the entire lane. Whether you ride to the right or take
the entire lane depends on the conditions of the roadway. On wide roadways with
slow traffic and few intersections/driveways, ride farther to the right. On fast
roadways with heavy traffic and busy intersections, ride farther to the left.
We need to encourage our children to wear bicycle helmets to reduce the
number of injuries and deaths from bicycle-related accidents. Parental
supervision and community laws requiring bicycle helmets are some traditional
ways to promote helmet usage. According to the above-referenced survey,
improving the fit and the design of helmets could also increase helmet usage. As
children become more independent, around the fifth grade, they are more likely
to wear a helmet if the helmet is comfortable. As children become more
influenced by their friends, however, they are also more sensitive to wearing a
helmet with a “cool” design. As many of the children shared in the survey,
encouraging role models such as sports or movie personalities --- and even mom
and dad --- to wear helmets could only enhance the appeal of bike helmets.
I would like to applaud the St. Matthew’s Cumberland Presbyterian Church
Skate Park staff that requires all skateboarders to wear a helmet.
For more information, visit
www.urbancycling.com and
www.dot.state.tx.us I encourage you to email me and let me know if you have
had success with getting your child to always wear a helmet and other stories
related to this topic.
In the meantime,
use your helmet and your head.
Originally published in
Burleson-Crowley Connection Newspaper,
|
