...to not make my 5 and 3 year old wear a cycle helmet?

[blindasabatenburg]

Am I failing to protect them sufficiently? Nobody wore helmets when we were kids and I don't recall anyonr suffering a serious head injury, though we all came off from time to time.

They could just as easily fall from a climbing frame at the park, but nobody would insist on a helmet for the park!!!

IKnowWhat, that study shows a 19% reduction in head injuries, which sounds good, but not amazing, considering the magic powers many attribute to helmets, but when you learn that cycling fell by 22% over the same period, it shows no benefit at all:

www.cyclehelmets.org/1008.html

Also head injuries were falling year-on-year anyway, along with all other road injuries:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Adult_cyclist_head_injuries_versus_helmet_use_in_New_Zealand.svg
www.cyclehelmets.org/1237.html

What have cycling speeds been averaging over the last 10 years compared to the 10 years previous to that?

Cycle helmets are not uncomfortable now.

Ta-rah amazingmum! See you around.

I do love stats. This is from the ROSPA site ( see full report, which I haven't had time to read: www.rospa.com/roadsafety/info/cycle_helmets.pdf)

"Do Bicycle Safety Helmets Reduce Severity of Head Injury in Real Crashes?"
Margaret Dorsch et al, Accident Analysis & Prevention Vol. 19, No 3 1987

An Australian study which investigated 197 cycling accidents in which the cyclist struck his/her head or helmet.

At the time of the accident 75 were not wearing any helmet, 69 were wearing a hairnet-style helmet, 37 a 'poor' hardshell helmet, and only 16 were wearing a 'good' hardshell helmet.

Those who were not wearing helmets were more likely to suffer head injuries. The report concluded that 'good' hardshell helmets would prevent 90% of the deaths due to head injury in a group similar to the unhelmeted group in the study.

I also had a peek at the cycle-helmets.com website and, well check him out and draw your own conclusions. Crusader or someone hell bent on debate (I'm looking at Pat there...).

I really must do some work now.

Up to you.

Child at the kids primary did an assembly with his mum ( he was year 5 IIRC) about how he fell, down a hidden gulley (the sort that have a little plank bridge over whist riding a safe cycle trail in the woods. He went headfirst 5 feet down onto the rocky dry stream bed. Spinal boarded to hospital etc helmet in 2 pieces. Child back at school the next week.

360 kids in the school. 1 life saved that we know about over the 4 yrs mine were there. That seems pretty convincing to me.

Moomins, the author of that study retracted his own claim:
www.cyclehelmets.org/1136.html

"we went through a rather hypothetical statistical procedure to arrive at those numbers"

"I was a bit distressed by some of the reports I had seen that suggested that 75 per cent of deaths could be prevented by everyone wearing very good, hard helmets.""

moomins
I knew there was such a thing as "good" helmet. thanks for that!

must remember the term 'hardshell'.

we both must get on!

Theas18, it's generally recognised a good idea to wear helmets while mountain biking, but you should know that helmets are designed to crush, not to split in two.

If you watch some car safety videos you can see this illustrated - here's a 1920s car with no crumple zones: flightline.highline.edu/iglozman/sciphy/pictorium/carcrash/oldcar.mov

Because it is so rigid, the occupants get completely fucked up in the crash. In a modern car, the front of the car collapses, absorbing much of the energy from the impact, protecting the occupants from death.

While split bicycle helmets look dramatic, they don't demonstrate that the helmet has protected the user's brain. What you should be looking at is the polystyrene, which is designed to compress, absorbing up to 70 joules of energy in doing so (which is far less then the energy that a car could impart in a crash - hence the importance of safe cycling, crash avoidance, rather than relying on a plastic hat to keep you safe). In many cases where helmets supposedly 'saved my life', the helmet has cracked or split and therefore failed at its function, although it may have protected the user from cuts and grazes and other minor injuries.

YABU

having seen the injuries in a local brain injury unit caused from not wearing helmets on bikes/mopeds/quads - you would be mad not to make them wear a helmet.

You love them - protect them

Even my DH who was anti helmet now wears one after seeing these injuries

(my DM was in this unit following a brain aneursym (sp?) so I seen first hand what damage often irreversible can be done without a helmet.

So sorry - YABVVVVU

In the report he says 90%. Oh well... That's stats for ya ("we went through a rather hypothetical statistical procedure to arrive at those numbers" - so glad he wasn't hurling bricks and spanners at peoples heads).

I assume you do get what you pay for, or we'd all pop off to the pound shop for one.

My friend who had the massive crash and was in hospital for weeks/off work for over a year says that the ones that look like ski-helmets are the best for overall protection.

DH was cycling once and a car jumped a light. He catapulted over the car and landed on his head. At speed. From a height.

It definitely saved his life.

Now because he was quite into cycling, he was wearing a helmet, whereas in those days generally people didn't.

I want the dcs to automatically relate bike=helmet so that they are afforded the same protection.

My mum's best friend's son almost died after flipping over his handlebars and splitting his head open on the curb. He's been left with brain damage. I don't know why you would want to take that risk. I'm 18 and my mum still insists I wear a helmet when I cycle, which is only reasonable.

How do people know that all those cracked helmet anecdotes relate to heads that might not have hit anything had the cyclist not been wearing a helmet?

As I've said, I'm not saying helmets are bad, I've just yet to be convinced that they're particularly good.

Those videos of crash test dummies are enough to make a sane person use a seatbelt/child car seat. Do similar exist for those £15 bits of polystyrene people are so convinced regularly save lives? That's not a rhetorical question btw.

Ilike motorbike/motorsport helmets would be dangerous on pushbikes I imagine, because of their weight (emphasis in the 'imagine' there because I'm not a physicist or an anatomist or involved in anything like those disciplines!).

Motorcycle helmets are not worn because they're too hot and restrictive, not because they are dangerous. Same physics if you're doing 30mph on a pushbike or a moped, but different risk/benefit/hindrance ratio.

DH definitely would have hit his head. He flew into air across the bonnet of a car and his helmeted head hit the ground directly, before the rest of him. He then rolled forwards and skidded along the road. Thought he'd stopped, so put his hand down, hadn't and ended up flipping over.

Obviously he wasn't going at 3/5 year old speed. But I'm very glad he got into the habit of wearing a helmet when he was younger and got to associate helmets with bikes.

DD goes to a cycle club, and helmets are absolutely compulsory (gloves too). DS2 is a demon on his balance bike. He's 3 and he knows that if he wants to go on it, he has to wear his helmet.

They also limit visibility and hearing. Motorbikes have mirrors, pushbikes generally don't.

As we are doing anecdotes..my dad cycled everyday o is adults life to work, 10 miles there and 10 miles back, on busy A roads. he never owned or wore a helmet.

he was knocked off many times; at low speed, high speed and in between speed. he broke arms, shoulder blade, collar bone.

never had a head injury

Patpig - I'm afraid you're onto a loser here. Despite presenting your argument very well, backed up by relevant research, you are failing to make any headway against the knee-jerk reaction to not wearing a helmet.

You have rightly pointed out that a split helmet is actually evidence that the helmet failed rather than evidence that it protected.
Dozens of people have given their anecdotes of how their DC, DH'S etc were 'saved' by a helmet, despite having no actual evidence that it would (other than a split helmet which shows the opposite).
Many people have claimed that a helmet would have saved someone from death or appalling injury when involved in accidents where a mere cycle helmet would have been utterly inadequate.
The range of accidents a cycle helmet can protect against is fairly limited. If people don't believe that then why don't they google cycle helmet standards? Cycle helmets are not the same as motorcycle helmets and do not offer anywhere near the same level of protection.
I believe cycle safety starts with training and safety awareness. Observation and anticipation skills seem to be sorely lacking. How many stories have we seen here of people going over the handlebars? In my nearly 40 years of cycling I have yet to be catapulted over the handlebars, in fact I can only remember coming off once.
Also poorly made and maintained cycles are so common but as long as they wear a helmet all is fine apparently. My neighbour sends their kids out on bikes with brakes so badly adjusted and made that they are lethal but they have helmets on do all is well.

dh's cycle helmet was still intact. It did not fail.

He was cycle through a junction, on green. A driver coming through the crossroads jumped the red light and so he hit the side of her car. Completely unavoidable (for him). Pure driver error (hers - hence the fact she was convicted of dangerous driving).

His helmet did save his life in the opinion of the A&E doctors. His skull would have hit the tarmac if he hadn't been wearing it.

"They also limit visibility and hearing"

No they don't.

i did ask this earlier of another person, but it continuesto confuse me; why do people think that doctors have a more valid opinion of how useful a helmet is? They specialise in medical science. they are not impact physicists and are no more qualified than any other person to predict how wearing a helmet/not wearing a helmet would have affected the outcome

It's interesting about the unsafe bikes actually DoesBuggerAll.

The bikes we are sold in this country require skillead assembly, regular skilled maintenance of brakes, gears, and so on.

That's assuming you buy a half-decent one, and not a Bike Shaped Object from Toys R Us, Tesco etc., which may never be safe. bicycleshapedobject.wordpress.com/hall-of-shame/

In Holland, where only a tiny minority wear helmets, they ride low-maintenance bikes, with enclosed chains, built-in lights, hub gears, roller brakes, and other components designed so that the bikes work without regular trips to the bike shop.

These bikes, by design, are much more likely to be in a safe, rideable condition than most bikes sold in the UK, where we instead choose to put our collective trust in plastic hats.

OP, you're teaching your children that they don't need safety equipment for what is overwhelmingly a safe activity. So no, YANBU.

talking about unsafe bikes....

we wre in the park recently and my daughter was racing a boy from school on their bikes. His back brake cable wasnt connected, his tyres were soft and worn, his chain was caked.

I called a halt and said, because he race was unfair they should swap bikes and have a second round

My dds bike is good quality and well maintained....The boy pulled the front brake on hard to stop (used to his own) and promptly flew over the handle bars. He was luckily fine, but jeez!!

'why do people think that doctors have a more valid opinion of how useful a helmet is?

I suppose because they deal with the results of accidents, and most other people don't. I'd trust a doctor/Ambulance person/Paramedic/A&E nurse over someone who is interpreting stats of reports (which may or may not be written with bias).

How do you know if a bicycle helmet is a good fit?

My DD has never worn one, because it never occurred to me - I've never really seen any children wear them round here, so its not something I ever thought about.

But, having read this thread, I can see that she needs to start, whether she likes it or not. So where do I go to get one fitted properly, since presumably a badly fitted one would be as bad as none at all?