The reporter accepted the CPSC claim that half of US bicycle riders wear helmets. This is wishful thinking. In Utah, only 15% of elementary school age bicyclists wear helmets and less than 5% of secondary school age bicyclists wear helmets. This is an increase from when the Utah Department of Health started doing bicycle helmet observations in 1994 when elementary school age bicycle helmet use was only 3%. In North Carolina observed helmet use is 17%. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports that 98% of the cyclists killed in 1999 were not wearing helmets.
The reporter also used inaccurate injury and death data. There were 750 cyclists in the US killed in crashes with motor vehicles in 1999, this is down 10% since 1989 and down 26% since 1980. There were also 51,000 cyclists in the US injured in crashes with motor vehicles in 1999, this is down 17% since 1995. But to judge the effectiveness of helmets based on numbers like these -- negative or positive -- is to ignore many other factors that affect the safety of bicyclists on the roads.
Any trend in the rate of head injuries reported should be matched with accurate exposure data on how many miles are being cycled, a key statistic that is not collected. The author concludes somehow that the increase in off-road riding is not likely to be adding to the head injury numbers, even though that per mile there are more crashes and more injuries of all kinds in off-road cycling than road cycling.
The article brushes lightly by the fact that traffic has made US roads more dangerous for cyclists. In Utah, the number of vehicle miles traveled a year doubled from 1980 to 1998. This is a fact of life for every bicyclist who uses Utah roads. Does anyone expect helmets to compensate for vastly increased traffic?
The article also attempts to convince the reader that helmeted cyclists take more risks because they think they are protected. Do any of you helmeted bicyclists believe this? Helmets do not give a false sense of security, any more than seat belts cause drivers to drive more dangerously and smoke alarms cause people to be more careless with fire in their home. Should seat belts and air bags be blamed for the increase in over 20,000 traffic crashes a year in Utah compared to 1980 data?
Bicycle helmets will not prevent injuries to other body parts or prevent death when hit by a truck at highway speeds. But helmets do protect their wearers by reducing deaths and injuries no matter how a given set of poorly-defined statistics may appear. Bicycle safety requires a multidimensional effort, with helmets as one useful tool, but this article attempts to turn that approach into evidence that helmets are not working. The lack of balance and perspective should be evident.
Helmets are an effective safety device for bicyclists. Studies have shown that helmets are 85-90% effective in reducing head injury. Helmets are not the only means of safety for bicyclists. Bicyclists also need to obey traffic signs and signals, ride with the flow of traffic, use hand signals, and have proper lighting at dusk and dark.
Motorists also share part of the blame for bicycle injuries. Motorists need to be especially careful around children riding bicycles, not drive or park in bicycle lanes, check for bicyclists in blind spots when turning or changing lanes, yield to bicyclists the same as for other types of vehicles on roads, and allow at least three feet of clearance when passing a bicyclist.