Do your DC wear bike helmets ?

[Tipsykisses]

My Ds has always worn a helmet , he's 7 now and rides really well so now rides to school with Dp (his dad) .

The bikes are kept in PIL garage a few doors down from us as we don't have room at our house , all our nieces & nephews are in and out regularly and ds helmet couldn't be found this morning .

I've told Dp he either needs to find the helmet or we need to buy a new one if Ds is going to continue to ride his bike but he thinks I'm over reacting & says that plenty of children ride without them .

Am I over reacting ?

No helmet no bike. Ever . Have seen kids fall and crack heads on kerbs etc

You would be the one to tell my PIL that their daughter's life support machine was being turned off then, would you ladybirds? A car hit her bike and she banged her head. Died 3 days later.

Ladybirds is agreeing though Arabella like everyone on the thread. So sorry about your PIL's daughter, that's so sad.

I came off my bike aged 8 (40 years ago). Hit my head and was unconscious for ages - spent a week in hospital. How I didn't die is beyond me when I look back. No-one wore helmets or seat belts etc then.

Yes, just realised that. Read it wrong. So sorry.

No helmet no bike here as well. It's just a helmet, just something that you put on your head that isn't even that expensive, but can save your life, why wouldn't you?

Same with seatbelts, why on earth wouldn't you?

My 3 always wear helmets as do dp and I.
One of the school mums said your lot are so good how do you get them to wear helmets. Well I told them to because I'm the grown up. They don't make a fuss about wearing them to be fair but they do know that no helmet means no bike.
It's like so many other things that keep them safe they are non negotiable.

we don't use them here in the NL except about 1 person in 400. It does make me uneasy sometimes though apparently there's conflicting reports about how good they are statistically because some drivers become more careless if they see someone with a helmet.

there are cycle paths all over in the NL though and cycles are top of the food chain, above cars for certain. If a car hits a cyclist, it's automatically 50% the driver's fault ... used to be 100%. Still doesn't negate the chance of an accident falling on a kerb though. Also if a brain injury did happen, well, whose fault it is isn't very significant at that point.

Please don't ever ride a bike without a helmet. My dad died falling off his bike. By all accounts he was only traveling really slowly negotiating some roadworks and fell off, cracked his head on the road and died of brain injuries within 24 hours. If he had been wearing a helmet he would have survived and most likely been completely fine.

I agree totally Meerka having had a DF saying she still felt she had concussion a week after hitting her head on the kerb. She was in a group and caught the week in front. She said they were going really slowly.

Back then no one wore helmets, but I'm certain in that situation one would help.

"Some drivers become more careless because they see a helmet"

Doubt it though.

Some nob might have used that as an excuse for his bad driving once or twice, but I can't say I've ever seen a helmet and thought 'oh I can knock him off his bike now, no worries'

I fell off my bike last Sunday. I was doing about 0.5mph (forgot to get my cycling shoes uncleated, like a pillock), but my helmet certainly saved me as I hit the pavement. I was still a little groggy for 5 minutes afterwards.

I'm sorry to hear about your father, plummy

No helmet, no bike. Ds also cycle races and at every age group, from U8s (very cute ) through to adults, helmets are compulsory.

There is indeed research that suggests that cars pass bikes more closely if the cyclist is wearing a helmet - but on balance I still think helmets should be worn.

Helmets don't really protect against collisions with other vehicles but can protect against "simple" falls.

My mum fell skidding on sand on the riad going down a hill on a cycling holiday in India at about 25mph - bounced on (and broke) her pelvis and even then on to her head. Even though was wearing a helmet, she still sustained serious head injuries.

But she would have made at least a partial recovery (indeed, she was recovering - got to about 80% of who she'd been) if she hadn't unfortunately been one of the small proportion of people in whom the "healing" process doesn't stop and instead becomes destructive so 2 years after her accident she developed dementia (fronto-temporal, same as the head injury) which 3 years later she died from

But the point is: that was bad luck (abd indeed, she make have contributed to the research on how to stop that happening to others ) Without a helmet, she'd have died in India

Two people I know who fell on their (helmeted) heads there was no car involved - one was a pothole, the other his forks broke.

DH is a serious cyclist and always wears a helmet and insists that we all do to, not that we wouldn't, but he has seen some nasty accidents over the years.

"I know there is some debate as to how effective they are, but I'm not willing to take the chance."

As I understand it, there is NO debate regarding the effectiveness of helmets for children. As a bike-nut-friend explained - children are much more likely to randomly fall off / cycle into a wall / have low speed random crashes - exactly the sort of things where a helmet can make the difference between major injury and not.

Having researched it a bit more, dd & I picked her a bmx-style 'potty' helmet - they're more trendy (at least here), and also there isn't the risk of a twisting spinal injury which seems to be the only negative on a flat 'lid' style helmet. (She has this helmet - the only thing I find a little un-nerving is the TSG logo, always makes me think of the Met in full body-armour )

Sounds pretty conclusive that it's unequivocally good for children then.

I totally get that in the Netherlands and other places in Europe helmets are a rarity - but proper cycle lanes are common, cars drive slow near schools due to the volume of bikes and cyclists are respected on roads , I have witnessed hundreds of kids in Holland cycling to school down flat safe roads with cycle lanes and no pot holes / arrogant drivers parking on yellow lines etc. In the uk roads are not so friendly . My rule is however based on the very high speed my 2 go at and unexpected tumbles. £15 helmet v head injury

The Netherlands is also very flat - I wear a helmet, because the only two times I've come off in recent years it was going too fast down a steep hill / round a corner in wet weather. No cars involved, and no damage besides being a bit scraped up, but had I hit my head, a helmet would have made a big difference.

My Dh was a close-up witness to an accident where a cyclist was cycling along a road and a driver did a right turn across him because they didn't see him. He was wearing a helmet and lived, he's never walked again, but he lived. His face knocked the wing mirror off and he suffered serious facial and upper spine injuries, but his head was protected as he landed backwards on the road. He didn't have brain damage purely because he had a helmet on.

Also, if on the road, wear a Hi-Viz jacket/waistcoat! I saw an accident this morning caused because the driver of one car saw me on my bike (wearing a Hi-Viz jacket), avoided me and hit another car coming along the road he was joining. He should have been looking all around, but at least he saw me. Luckily no injuries.

cars can be mended or replaced 4

no helmet, no scooter or bike.

No helmet equals no bike or scooter here too, but then I did have a serious accident whilst not wearing one and I would have faired so much better if I had a helmet on...

I'm more paranoid about visibility than helmets, tbh.

Years ago, I cycled up to a roundabout and only saw another cyclist at the very last moment. I thought, if she was that invisible to me, on a bike and alert to other bikes, with lights and reflectors like mine, I must be just as invisible.

I went and got a reflective strap the next day, and I always wore it in the dark after that.

DH cycles as part of his commute, and tried wearing a helmet but found it disturbed what he could hear of the rest of the traffic so much that he stopped wearing it: he couldn't judge where things were when he couldn't see them. In the dark/dusk he is always lit up like a Christmas tree. I'd be happier if he wore a helmet, but at least he's well lit.

My kids always wear helmets. When younger I didn't, but do now. Last year I was knocked over by a car, and things would have been very nasty had I not been wearing a helmet. It is very rare to see a child on a bike here (London) without a helmet, and increasingly rare to see adults without them. I also agree with MehsMum - visibility is also v important. I have been known to shout at cyclists who don't have lights in the dark.

nope, not for just playing out in the street and that's all they do with their bikes, I think if they were going any sort of distance then I would prefer them to but not for just playing out they don't. DD is always getting a row for riding her bloody pony with no hat on though but she discovered old photos of me as a kid doing it and throws that up every time.