Eureka! Letter to Editor Makes a Brilliant Suggestion

Susan McGee, of Eureka Ca., recently wrote a letter to the editor on a very important cycling issue.

Titled "Bicycle riders need to wear helmets" it makes several points:

Many people in Humboldt County are riding their bicycles for fun, exercise and transportation, but I wince whenever I see a bicyclist without a helmet. I’m concerned that so many of the children riding our roads are not wearing bicycle helmets...

brain injury is the most common for bike riders who are not wearing a helmet. Traumatic brain injuries result in lifelong impairments in one or more areas: cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; judgment; problem-solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities; psycho-social behavior; physical functions; information processing; and speech...

Too often, people may wear bike helmets on long trips, but not close to home. Yet, more than 60 percent of childhood bicycle-related fatalities occur on neighborhood roads, and the typical bike crash occurs within a mile of home...

Riding without a helmet significantly increases the risk of sustaining a head injury. Non-helmeted riders are 14 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than helmeted riders.

Children 10 to 14 are at greater risk for brain injury from a bicycle-related crash than younger children, most likely because helmet use declines as children age. Helmet use by children of all ages is lowest among children ages 11 to 14 (11 percent).

Quoted from the August 15, 2008 Eureka Reporter Online.

In my sidebar, under the heading of BICYCLE HELMETS: Information to help you decide, are 5 very important website links related to this issue.