Bike helmets

[marmeemarch1]

I have always insisted my two DDs 6 and 9 wear bike helmets. They have recently started meeting our oldest DDs friends and playing around the block. It's a very quiet area but does have some through traffic.

They like to go out on their bikes. I have said they have to wear helmets but their dad and our childminder frequently let them out without helmets.

They say they hurt their heads, make them sweaty and they are embarrassed to wear them as not all of their friends wear them. Our current compromise is if they don't want to go out with helmets they can't take their bikes, but can still play out with their friends.

I have worked with people with brain injury so am worried that my work experiences are clouding my judgement.

Wise mumsnetters what do you think

So, this car Vs bike arguement can be summed up by "but cars are dangerous too so why bother protecting yourself on a bike if you don't in a car?"

Personally the need to wear a helmet is not exactly a huge chore that would prevent me riding a bike. It's not exactly a huge sacrifice, in the grand scheme of possible consequences. I don't really understand the "the risk is small so I'll ignore it" argument.

I wouldn't drive a car without airbags and a seat belt either. My DC rear face, and I would if were possible to do so whilst driving!

No, but the difference is the non helmet wearers or flexi helmet wearers aren't dictating to others how to live their lives. The word 'should' is used way too much on mumsnet threads. It's all a bit preachy.

When I couldn't ride and DD did, not wearing wasn't a choice. However, now I do ride, I don't and don't make my DD where one either. I guess a lot of that is down to Living in the Netherlands and the only people who wear helmets are those who race and expats. We also have a lot of dedicated bike paths and I tend to avoid riding alongside regular traffic where possible. However, when I get an e-bike I will be wearing one, as well as taking an e-bike cycling course because the number of injuries involving them are crazy high.

DD is now ten and although I don't enforce helmet wearing she has taken road safety cycling courses, unfortunately this year only the theory is available at school, so I have booked her private practical lessons. Don't get me wrong, helmets are a good idea but I do understand how much of a phaff they are and road safety courses are my somewhat lame way of making up for not wearing them.

Flavia I don't think there is a problem with fit, I think that is an excuse. Although my children do seem to get hot sweaty to be fair.

My 2 year old came off his scooter at a decent speed a few weeks ago and watching his head bounce off the pavement 3 times I was bloody glad he was wearing his helmet (as he always does). He trips and falls pretty often, he's 2, but not with the momentum he has whilst scooting along.

I couldn't care less what others do but with my children it will always be non negotiable

Isetan, whilst totally respecting your choice for your child, I have to say I'm struggling with your logic. A road safety course isn't going to help if your child hits an uneven surface and falls off and bangs their head on the ground is it?

I haven't cycled in a while but I always wear a helmet. I know a lot of people who go everywhere on bike throughout London. Work, pub, shops etc and I can't help but wince a bit. Especially when they wobble off after a few pints!

One of them cites research that shows drivers are more careful around cyclists without helmets than those wearing them. This is why he doesn't wear one.

@ivykaty44
I don't wear a helmet in a car because I have air bags and a seatbelt. My children have car seats.

On a bike, there is no protection, a fall would result in a drop at speed onto a hard surface when their hands are not necessarily in position to slow the fall.

Of course, it won't protect anyone from going under a lorry, but it will protect against an unnecessary head injury.

Anyone else remember how outraged people were about seatbelt laws coming in?

And yet you are still more likely to get a head injury in a car!

On the balance of probabilities, DS spends much more time on a bike than he does in a car so I don't see the logic in that argument Lethaldrizzle

To a pp who said something about they would prefer the accident/impact to be avoided in the first place (re seatbelt pretensioners I think).

Transfer that scenario to cycling on the road.
Research has shown that cars drive significantly further away from bare-headed cyclists. That obviously reduces the risk of an impact as they are physically more distant.

But the overwhelming argument is to wear helmets come what may without question - which then brings car drivers significantly closer to the cyclist and therefore increases the risk of a head going under a car wheel.

Which one is the better option here?

(btw that is rhetorical as I am also a firm believer in every adult making the choice that is right for them and not dictating selective facts that grossly ignore valid reasons to/not to wear lids)

Seat belts are the law all over the world. Helmets are not. There is a reason for that. Until the world makes a major shift away from the dominance of the motorised vehicle, cyclists will always be demonised and hectored.

Here in the US helmets aren't the law (something crazy about constitutional rights or something). When I see one of my students riding a bike without a helmet I always ask them if they are signed up to be an organ donor. They probably have lovely kidneys (livers not so much...). Stupid to ride without one. And some of the worst crashes in pro cycling happen at slow speed. Yes, the high speed crashes are the "spectacular" (whatever the hell that means) crashes, but the damaging, bone breaking crashes happen at slow speed. Gravity is quite unforgiving. Just wear a helmet, it's a small habit that can save your life.

@Sarcomere When I see one of my students riding a bike without a helmet I always ask them if they are signed up to be an organ donor.

Wow, what a presumptuous and ill-informed thing to say.

I hope those judgy pants aren't giving you a wedgie.

However, when I get an e-bike I will be wearing one, as well as taking an e-bike cycling course because the number of injuries involving them are crazy high.

@Isetan that is interesting, I didn't know e-bikes had more injuries

@Sarcomere considering you see so many students riding bikes without helmets, and consider them to be 'organ donars' I guess you have seen an awful lot of deaths by people falling off their push bikes nad hitting their heads?

No? thought not.

Do manufacture put airbags in the back seats of cars where the children sit once out of a car seat?

I thought airbags were in fromt seats

Back seats being where children sit and airbags being dangerous for smaller lighter humans?

Has this really changed?

And yet you are still more likely to get a head injury in a car!

Because far more people travel far more miles by car in the UK than do by bike. If 1000 people work in an iron foundry and 500 suffer an industrial accident, but 100,000 work in an office and 1000 people have an industrial accident, would you conclude that working in an office you are more or less likely to have an industrial accident.

A cyclist travelling one mile is 15 times more likely to suffer a fatality than a motorist traveling the same distance (dft 2014)

Transfer that scenario to cycling on the road.
Research has shown that cars drive significantly further away from bare-headed cyclists. That obviously reduces the risk of an impact as they are physically more distant.

A single study at the university of Bath suggested this, it hasn't been confirmed by any other research and anyway a motor vehicle is not the only accident hazard on the road by a long chalk.

The only time as an adult I came off a bike there was no car involved.
My children have come off their bikes many times, no car involved.

DH doesn't wear a helmet on the road, I do. The evidence for the effectiveness of helmet wearing in adults is pretty shaky IMO.

However DD always wears a (properly fitted) helmet as she is still at the random slow speed fall stage which a helmet might actually help.

As an aside, I see very few children wearing a helmet correctly (which is straps adjusted correctly, helmet low over forehead) and a badly worn helmet is worse than no helmet at all.

Big riding family here and we have no helmet = no ride. Thankfully, our children don't mind.

MIPS helmets for all of us.

I think people just think 'no helmet no ride' sounds clever.

Clever? Not really. It's been the rule since DS was 18 months and on a balance bike.

Now he's in a BMX club and it's completely normal. Most of the children wear full face helmets.