The good news is that bicycle helmets have been proven to prevent children’s injuries when involved in a bicycle accident.  The bad news is that despite strong evidence that bicylcle helmets save lives and prevent traumatic brain injuries many children still do not wear them.

Our firm’s highly qualified San Diego personal injury attorneys know one type of accident causing many injuries in children is the bicycle accident.  We believe that if more states enacted bicycle helmet laws, many bicyle crashes that cause catastrophic personal injury or wrongful death would be prevented.  A fatal bicycle accident happens every six hours in the United States, and each year in California alone, over 100 wrongful deaths and thousands of injured personal injuries are caused by bicycle crashes.

A new study on the usage of bicycle helmets found that children who live in states where helmets are not required are much more likely to be involved in a bicycle accident that causes them personal injury and require medical treatment than those states that require children to wear bicycle helmets.  Helmet laws of various sorts are in effect in 21 states.  In those states, helmet use was found to be twice as high.

Parents gave the researchers in the study several reasons for their children’s failure to wear helmets.  Some said they were uncomfortable, others said the helmets were too expensive, and low-income parents reported much lower use.

Based on what parents told them, researchers said that 42 percent of bike riders ages 14 to 17 always wear a helmet, while 31 percent sometimes do.  That means that one in four children never wear a bike helmet.

As a bicyclist, you are more likely to get seriously injured in a bike accident because you are sharing the roadways with cars and other larger automobiles.  If bicycle helmets are proven to prevent serious children’s injuries, then there is no reason why all states have not enacted bicycle helmet laws, right?

Our personal injury attorneys in San Diego believe that if more children wore helmets, then serious injuries caused by bicycle accidents would be prevented.  Therefore, we urge all bicyclists to wear helmets.

Please contact us for a free consultation with an experienced San Diego personal injury attorney — we speak both English and Spanish — at (800) 655-6585.  Click here and you may also submit your case for a Free Review.  No fee if no recovery.

About Michael Pines

Michael Pines is a former insurance company attorney who specializes in car accident injury. While he was an insurance attorney, he learned from behind the scenes on how insurance companies work and how they decided to pay injured people. Now that he works against insurance companies, Michael's inside knowledge has resulted in significant benefits to his clients injured in car accidents.