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</p>
<p>I think that we’re all sitting in front of the main explanation for rising obesity rates.</p>
<p>Think about it. In the era before home computers, wouldn’t you have been more active during the hours that you now spend in front of a computer screen?</p>
<p>I personally know of 3 people who were killed because of head injuries:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A 10-yo child, the grandson of one of my friends, was KILLED when he was struck by a car while riding his bike. The car did not kill him; the blow to the head when he hit the pavement did. Had he been wearing a helmet he would have survived, the parents were told.</p></li>
<li><p>A teenage boy, the boyfriend of my best friend when I was in high school, DIED when he fell off the hood of a car. Supposedly they were just horsing around and he was riding on the hood, and supposedly the car was only going 30mph, but he slipped off and hit his head on the pavement.</p></li>
<li><p>This man I knew at work, in his late 20s, had a few drinks and slipped on the dance floor and hit his head. He thought it was no big deal but was found dead in the morning.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>So yeah, it happens. Wearing a bike helmet was never negotiable in our family. It was like wearing seat belts.</p>
<p>My hubby rode dirt bikes as a teen, and then later was into all sorts of action adventures: martial arts, scuba diving, skiing, etc. He is a big believer in having the PROPER EQUIPMENT for the particular sport you are participating in. Whether it’s rollerblading, skiing, whatever, look at the PROS - they utilize the proper equipment. </p>
<p>So, perhaps you could convey the idea that it is COOL to emulate the PROS, who know what they are doing, are experts in their chosen sport, and take the proper precautions out of respect to the sport…not the ignorant.</p>
<p>Bikers wear helmets. Nothing uncool about that.</p>
<p>Wow, those sad stories make the point.
Back to corranged post too - are there any better reasons NOT to wear one?</p>
<p>No matter how many reasons there are to wear one, the sole fact that it is “uncool” will make most teens not use them</p>
<p>Maybe they will be considered “cooler” when they make them mandatory for bar dance floors.</p>
<p>i bike to school everyday since 7th grade
helmet is definitely a must!</p>
<p>do you want to be cool. or alive?
it’s as simple as that</p>
<p>my AP chem teacher just broke her collar bone and thumb from biking. if she didn’t have a helmet, she could have gotten some serious brain damage!</p>
<p>i think especially teenage guys who tries to do tricks needs them even more
someone died from doing tricks in a park next to my house a couple years ago. he broke his neck.</p>
<p>being a teenager. i know people don’t wear it cuz they think its cooler that way some guys use the excuse that its gonna mess up their hair as a way of not wearing it
but at my school district (in California) you can get warning and/or fined for not wearing bike helmet by the police.</p>
<p>and school can confiscate your bike till you get a helmet. so that’s why people use helmets</p>
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<p>I don’t understand how they can still think it’s uncool when the pros wear them. These people with their $3k bikes and perfectly toned, athletic bodies AND their helmets are the epitome of cool, imo.</p>
<p>My husband is a fanatic cyclist. He rides in a lot of century rides, where several thousand cyclists ride 100 miles. (one of the most popular is actually 2 centuries back to back, the Seattle-to-Portland ride, with 8000 riders every year). Organizers plan emergency services for one serious accident for every thousand riders. They always require helmets. In recent years, I am aware of multiple friends who have had bike accidents in which their helmets broke on impact–and they got up and walked away.</p>
<p>Not wearing a helmet is idiotic, jst like not wearing a motorcycle helmet is idiotic.</p>
<p>This is for all those who don’t think they need to wear helmets just crusing along the bike paths or when going at slow speeds or whatever your excuses…I go really crazy when I see adults riding bikes with kids…Kids have helmets on (cause it’s the law and we protect our kids) but the adults don’t wear a helmet.</p>
<p>Statistics and stories are helpful, but the reality of TBI (traumatic brain injury) are far worse and the real life issues faced by survivors are way more powerful. Having seen a lot of TBI in my career, I sometimes think that surviving can be a much more horrendous outcome than not surviving at all…not that I wish death on anyone, but TBI destroys lives and families. </p>
<p>I am a speech-language pathologist who worked for 20 years in a TBI rehab unit. You don’t need to be going fast to have permanent and life-altering cognitive and/or physical deficits from a “bump” on the head.</p>
<p>Imagine a ping pong ball in a small jar of water. Give the jar one sharp shake and watch the ball. It goes back and forth banging against the sides of the jar. That is your brain inside your skulll floating in its fluid. The “brain” keeps going even when the shake stops hitting the sides of the jar repeatedly. Now imagine the inside of the jar has sharp ridges and the ball is more like a thin balloon. Each time the balloon hits a ridge, small scratches and dents occur on the balloon and maybe even pop it. That is more realistic. The inside of your skull is not smooth and the brain develps mircro-abrasions and bleeds. It doesn’t take a hard crash to cause problems; just the right angle or intensity at a critical part of the brain.</p>
<p>Now the sad part is, that the older the brain, the harder and less successful the recovery. “Older” for brains is over the age of about 25. So the laws that require helmets only to age 18 are stupid. The worst injuries occur in middle age and older adults which is why simple falls in the elderly can be catastrophic. </p>
<p>Here are some examples of no-helmet TBI: 40 year old film industry executive, walking down the street, hit on the head by a wayward golf ball; knocked to the ground. Physically, no long term deficits; Cognitively - unable to sustain attention or remember new information easily. Unable to return to work for months and when he does, he has significant issues.</p>
<p>2 bike riders, crusing the beach bike trail; Mom pushing a stroller gets in the way; bikes tangle (remember…going slowly); one falls sideways whacking his head on the concrete (so the fall is about 5 feet at about 5 miles per hour);
injured person (age 22 - UCLA college student) ends up with right sided hemiparesis (weak arm and leg) and severe word finding problems with some problems with comprehension, reading and writing. He eventually returns to (community) college in a disabled students program with resource and tutoring help. </p>
<p>As for the motorcycle and bicycle accidents at high speeds (even with helmets), the TBI symptoms are far worse. Whenever the person was wearing a helmet, there is no doubt that the outcome would have been horendous had she/he not had on a helmet. This applies to skateboards, rollerblades and other on-road activities.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, blucroo. Very sobering.</p>
<p>Look, just put your foot down. Also, helmet-maker Giro has some great designs, many are inexpensive. You don’t need to purchase a $300 helmet to get a cool-looking model.</p>
<p>A student from my son’s school who had just completed 9th grade was killed last week in a skateboarding accident as a result of head injuries. He was not wearing a helmet. What a tragic occurrence. His parents, in an effort to make something positive out of their tremendous loss, were interviewed by reporters on educating teens to wear helmets while skateboarding.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4875447.html[/url]”>http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4875447.html</a></p>
<p>My 14 year old son is not allowed to roller blade/skateboard in our driveway without a helmet. We suggested knee/elbow/wrist pads to give him some sense of a choice and he choose not to use them; but the helmet is an absolute. I just don’t get how this is even negotiable with someone under 18 and living under your roof. Granted once they leave for college you have a lot less control over their choices, but while they are still at home it is the parent’s decision with consequences for not following the rules.</p>
<p>…and I hope all of you parents, who insist your kids wear helmets, wear them yourselves ALL the time you ride. Unless you no longer need your brain…in which case, go ahead and go without. But then, don’t expect your kids to continue to wear theirs when they leave home.</p>
<p>My D’s classmate last summer was on vacation (rising 7th) and died not wearing his helmet skateboarding. What it has done to the parents, sister, friends and even classmates who barely knew him is unbelievable. Don’t let him go without a helmet.</p>
<p>Sunday he graduates from OSU. The Friday before his last week of 7th grade he hit a rock going down the hill his Junior High School is on. If not for a very good helment he would have died. He had a serious enough concusion he didn’t know his name for about a week. </p>
<p>Steve</p>
<p>I’m a lenient mom on some things but not on safety issues. Bike helmets, along w seat belts and not driving drunk, should be non-negotiable, imo.</p>
<p>We were at UT Austin yesterday getting my son’s housing arrangements taken care of and I was noticing all the kids on bikes. Many, if not most, of them were wearing helmets. If a teen thinks it’s uncool to wear a helmet, tell him/her that that attitude is just juvenile, and s/he’ll find out differently just how cool it is to have the proper gear when s/he gets to college.</p>
<p>We can thank the Tour de France and the more recent Tours of California and Georgia for making bike riding cooler and the clothing more accessible, including great helmets. However, the shorts with the padding are a bit much.</p>
<p>My daughter shows horses so she has been weariing a helmet since she was 6. Thank goodness, she is so used to them that I have no trouble getting her to wear them. She forgets she has it on sometimes and actually rode all the home with me a couple of times when she was little. Neither one of us even noticed she had it on until we got home and one of the neighbors laughed and said, “remind me not to ride with you anywhere.”</p>
<p>Blucroo: the shorts with the padding are wonderful for many people. Keep in mind that they’re mainly for serious cyclists, who ride 50 or more miles at a time, not for commuters.</p>