Helmet

Dr. Richard A. Schieber, a childhood-injury prevention specialist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the leader of a national bicycle safety initiative, said public health officials were realizing that in addition to promoting helmet use, safety officials must teach good riding skills, promote good driving practices and create safer places for people to ride.

 

"We have moved the conversation from bicycle helmet use to bicycle safety," Dr. Schieber said. "Thank God that the public health world is understanding there is more to bicycle safety than helmets."

 

Promoting bicycle helmets without teaching riders about traffic laws or safe riding practices can encourage a false sense of security, according to several risk experts. Helmets may create a sort of daredevil effect, making cyclists feel so safe that they ride faster and take more chances, said Dr. Mayer Hillman, a senior fellow emeritus at the Policy Studies Institute in London.

 

One parallel, risk experts said, is anti-lock brakes. When they were introduced in the 1980s, they were supposed to reduce accidents, but government and industry studies in the mid-1990s showed that as drivers realized their brakes were more effective, they started driving faster, and some accident rates rose.

 

Even cyclists who discount the daredevil effect admit that they may ride faster on more dangerous streets when they are wearing their helmets.

 

On May 5, Noah Budnick, a 24-year-old New York resident, was wearing a helmet and cycling on Avenue B in Manhattan when he had to pull out from the side of the street to avoid a double-parked car and a taxicab idling behind it. As he moved to the left, the cab pulled out, striking Mr. Budnick. He broke his fall with his hands and did not hit his head on the ground, but the accident left him with a deep cut on his leg and a badly strained knee.

 

Although the cab was at fault for the accident, Mr. Budnick said, if he had been riding more slowly he might not have had the accident.

 

"I probably would have ridden more cautiously and less aggressively without the helmet," he said. "I don't know if I would ride in Manhattan at the speed I was going."

 

Still, many cycling advocates contend that it is not bicyclists but drivers who are more reckless. Distractions like cell phones have made drivers less attentive, they say, and congestion is making roads more dangerous for cyclists. They also believe that some drivers of sport utility vehicles and other trucks simply drive too close to cyclists.

 

It is difficult to show statistically that drivers have become more reckless in the last decade. The percentage of fatal bicycle accidents that involved cars has declined, falling from 87 percent in 1991 to 83 percent in 1998, according to the CDC.

 

Thom Parks, a vice president in charge of safety for the helmet maker Bell Sports, said safety standards could be upgraded and helmets could be designed to meet them. But that would make helmets heavier, bulkier and less comfortable. "There are limits to what a consumer would accept," Mr. Parks said, adding that if helmets became bigger, fewer people might wear them.

 

But the most effective way to reduce severe head injuries may be to decrease the number of accidents in the first place.

 

"Over the past several decades, society has come to equate safety with helmets," said Charles Komanoff, the co-founder of Right of Way, an organization that promotes the rights of cyclists and pedestrians. "But wearing a helmet does not prevent crashes."

You can read more at http://bicycleuniverse.info/eqp/helmets-nyt.html

Helmet and safety. Of course helmet shud be of high priority and its a matter of educating the riding community but those going around without one are far in between. Even on a dedicated bike lane accident can happen and the head is the most vulnerable.