Do your kids wear bike helmets? - Page 3

[the_lissa]

I don't think I've seen a kid riding a bike w/o a helmet.

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by angie3096

I equate riding the bike without the helmet to riding in the car without the carseat.

Statistically, though, there's more justific'n for having them wear the helmet in the car than on the bike. Do any of you wear helmets in a car?

[angie3096]

Originally Posted by Robert Goodman

Statistically, though, there's more justific'n for having them wear the helmet in the car than on the bike.

I wonder if that's really true. When you look at crash test footage, what strikes me is head excursion. When the child is in a 5 point harness, it doesn't look like the head is actually striking anything. The kid gets thrown around, and there is obviously stress to/damage to the spine and neck, but you don't see the head smashing up against things the way it would in, say, a bike wreck.
If the kid is in a backless booster in a side impact collision, of course, the head is going to smash against the interior of the car. But in a 5 point harness in a seat with TSIP? I don't think it's that much of an issue. I don't know, but from the videos, that's what it looks like.

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by angie3096

I wonder if that's really true. When you look at crash test footage, what strikes me is head excursion. When the child is in a 5 point harness, it doesn't look like the head is actually striking anything. The kid gets thrown around, and there is obviously stress to/damage to the spine and neck, but you don't see the head smashing up against things the way it would in, say, a bike wreck.

If the kid is in a backless booster in a side impact collision, of course, the head is going to smash against the interior of the car. But in a 5 point harness in a seat with TSIP? I don't think it's that much of an issue. I don't know, but from the videos, that's what it looks like.

I was thinking of children of the 2-wheeler age, too big for car seats. Helmets must make sense or race car drivers wouldn't wear them, even though they use 4-point attachment belts. I'm also thinking of the danger of objects striking the head in a crash. In actual crashes, there are an awful lot of head injuries even with belts.

When I visited my sister in Calif. in 1990, I thought the pattern of helmet wearing by my niece & nephew were laughable. They put on helmets to bicycle or tricycle, even though they went slower than I walked, and with their heads closer to the ground than mine, or to roller skate (ditto). But they took them off at the playground to use monkey bars, etc., where I thought their chance of head injury was far greater and need for peripheral vision less. And no, they didn't wear them in the car or on the stairs either.

I also question the value of hard helmets in American football.

Robert

[angie3096]

Yet another reason why I so dread the day when my daughter gets too big for her carseat! Maybe I will put a helmet on her...that's an idea...

[KarenEMT]

My older son is a racing cyclist and it is MANDATORY for USCF racers in the race and on the race grounds to wear them. Like mamapoppins mentioned, it makes my blood boil when they don't.

I've seen many high-speed bike crashes and the helmets do work. Our kids all wear helmets on anything wheeled, as do DH and I. I won't ride my bike 5 feet without a helmet.

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by KarenEMT

Our kids all wear helmets on anything wheeled, as do DH and I.

Including cars & buses?

[tboroson]

Originally Posted by KarenEMT

My older son is a racing cyclist and it is MANDATORY for USCF racers in the race and on the race grounds to wear them. Like mamapoppins mentioned, it makes my blood boil when they don't.

I've seen many high-speed bike crashes and the helmets do work.

But, that's high-speed. My brother used to race - he could go 50 miles an hour in the right conditions. Hell yeah, he needed a helmet. My daughter piddling around a playground basketball court, no faster than I can jog? Fundamentally different. Now, if she's on the street on the same bike, yeah she wears a helmet - if she is hit by a car and sent flying, it'll be at a speed much faster than she was cycling. She could fall down an embankment instead of straight to the ground. And DD1, now, can actually really cook on the road on her bike - she cracked a helmet hitting a mailbox; dh was behind her, and his cyclometer read 20. But there's no way she'd ever achieve that speed - or encounter those kind of obstacles - on a playground or on the grass in our yard.

[KarenEMT]

Originally Posted by Robert Goodman

Including cars & buses?

LOL - sometimes I need a helmet riding in the ambulance!

Anything wheeled and human powered

Actually, the time my head was saved from clonking the pavement was a slow-speed crash. I had to avoid an elderly man pulling out who did not see me. The helmet did not "save my life" in that instance due to the slow speed, but it certainly did save me from a nice bruise and headache.

My son who races is on the autism spectrum - to him things like safety devices are all or nothing. If you let him slide about helmet use one time, then like one of the previous posters mentioned - it will be a huge and ongoing battle.

As far as wearing helmets around bike races, you can be penalized for not wearing your helmet anywhere on the race grounds, including when you are riding up to the entry tent going as slow as you walk.

[treqi]

I said rarely but dd is 1 and is only in the bike trailer but still she should wear a helmet: i know

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by KarenEMT

LOL

Why? If crash helmets are de rigeur for for you bicycling, why not in the car, where (last I checked) 50% of head injuries occur? And why not on stairs?