Should I make him wear a bike helmet?

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My DS is almost 12. He has just joined Y7, likes to meet up with friends and often this means going out on bikes. He took his cycling proficiency earlier in the year. None of his friends seem to wear helmets and I have, so far, insisted he should. He doesn't want to though as this makes him different to his friends. Should I insist he wears one, advise him he should but let him decide or not let him out on his bike if he doesn't?

So many anecdotes of people being killed and ending up in critical care/brain injury units due to cycling. You'd think there would be a national professional outcry calling for compulsory helmet use.

@Keepithidden

My take on the risk is that a head will better off in a helmet if it hits the ground and that takes no cycling/traffic/ accident stats into account.

I call it common sense.

So many anecdotes - maybe because everyone seems to know at least one person seriously hurt/killed without one or had a lucky escape with one.

No, not suggesting lying at all!

Just suggesting that personal experience is not equal to actual risk. Up to you what you read in to that...

Common sense would dictate any similar risk activity warrants a similar level of protection, but it never does. People don't want to walk wearing a helmet for example.

My dear late mum, who was a cyclist into her 80s, was knocked off her bike one Sunday morning by someone carelessly backing out of their driveway. This was just before her Australian state adopted compulsory helmet laws. She was just shy of 70 at that point.

She was knocked out and taken to hospital as an unknown female because all they found on her was a 50c coin in her shorts pocket - she had been cycling to buy The Sunday Times (WA version).

Until she came round, nobody knew who she was and none of the family were aware of the accident (she was a widow by then and lived alone).

She got really stroppy with the staff who kept coming in to ask her the date, the year and who the PM was. Surely people in such responsible jobs should know these things?!

My sister bought her a helmet and she cycled on regardless for years afterwards without further incident.

We could use helmet laws here to help parents of 'indestructible' kids keep them safe.

I sustained a traumatic brain injury after falling over and hitting my head, so no chance my ds would cycle without a helmet, as I know how catastrophic and life changing a bang on the head can be.

Give me strength. @Keepithidden

It's this kind of convoluted statistical game that doesn't translate into real life.

Yeah didn't wear helmet because people don't wear them walking down the road because of perceived risk baloney. Life isn't one big spread sheet it's actual skulls hitting the ground. And unfortunately I know someone too and we're all probably clustering to this thread with our anecdotal evidence which will affect the stats but jeez.

Our whole family cycles everywhere, and if you forget your helmet, you walk.

Our very sensible 16 year old babysitter came off her bike last week. A bystander said that her foot got stuck in her pedal on a very slow, safe road, and she came over the front of the bike. She has a smashed face and no recollection for about 12 hours, but she is alive. Her helmet split in half.

No helmet, no ride.

For those interested in the stats, and an objective, rather than subjective viewpoint:

www.cyclehelmets.org/1026.html

Skulls hit things all the time, sometimes with nasty consequences, time to keep things in perspective IMO.

The perspective went from this thread long ago. Nice stats!

My kids have to wear cycle helmets .I have it totally in perspective @Keepithidden

One of my friends was in a coma for 3 months after falling off his bike in a low risk suburban setting and cracking his skull on the kerb. He was 14 and lucky to recover with no deficits.

I can’t understand why you wouldn't Wear a helmet - we aren’t in the Netherlands and don’t have Their cycling infrastructure. Looking cool is not worth a brain injury

Figures compiled by RoSPA show head injuries are very common injuries to cyclists: data from hospitals show 40% of cyclists and 45% of child cyclists suffer head injuries and three quarters of cyclist fatalities have major head injuries.
Meanwhile, a Cochrane review suggested helmets reduced the risk of injury to the head and the brain by a substantial 65%-88%; and the upper and mid-face by 65%.

firstaidforlife.org.uk/cycle-helmets-do-they-really-save-lives/

Always wear a helmet on a bike.

There are lots of teens in our town getting about on bikes, they travel on pavements and I have never seen a single one out with their friends wearing a helmet.

I can only assume those with parents who insist on helmets don't go out with their friends on bikes, or hide the helmet somewhere outside until it's time to go home.

I wouldn’t allow my child to go out without a helmet

Yes @myolivetree . Nailed it.