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Bicycle helmet giveaway programs may increase use of helmets, but the increase may be only temporary. The Texas program increased used by 7th and 8th grade students from 3% to 38% by the end of the school year, but during the summer, use fell to 5%. This was despite the fact that 96% of the students agreed that helmet use improved safety, and 68% said they thought helmets should be worn whenever riding a bicycle. All spot observations of students showed 0% helmet use., Objective. To determine the effect of a bicycle helmet giveaway program on helmet use among children. Methods. In 1995, a bicycle helmet giveaway program was conducted in two rural towns in Texas. Helmets were given to all 403 school children in kindergarten through grade 8. Helmet education, a bicycle rodeo, and incentives to increase helmet use were part of the program. Observations of helmet use were made before the helmet program began and after the program at several intervals throughout the school year and during the summer. A self-reported survey questionnaire was administered to children in grades 4 through 8 before the helmet program began and at several intervals during the school year to determine their attitudes about helmet use, safety perceptions, and peer pressure. A questionnaire also was administered to the parents of these children to determine attitudes and bicycle helmet use among parents. Results. Helmet use increased from 3% before the giveaway to 38% at the end of the school year, 7 months later. However, during the subsequent summer, helmet use decreased to 5%. Helmet use among 7th- and 8th-grade students was 0% at all observations periods after the giveaway. Even though 96% of all students thought that helmet use increased riding safety and 68% thought helmets should be worn at all times when riding, only 25% thought that their friends would approve of helmet use. Most parents also believed that helmets increased riding safety and should be worn, but only 23% reported always wearing one when riding a bicycle. Conclusions. Bicycle helmet giveaway programs can increase helmet use temporarily, but they may not be sufficient to sustain it. This program was not effective among 7th- and 8th-grade students. Pediatrics 1998;101: 578-582; bicycles, helmets, children., ABBREVIATION. K-8, kindergarten through grade 8. Approximately 66.9 million Americans rode bicycles in 1991, and approximately half were [is less than] 21 years old.[1] Although bicycle riding might seem harmless, [...]

Legislation requiring bicyclists to wear helmets in Israel will, over a helmet's 5-year duration (assuming 85% compliancy, 83.2% helmet efficiency for morbidity, and 70% helmet efficiency for mortality), save approximately 57 lives and result in approximately 2544 fewer hospitalizations; 13 344 and 26 634 fewer emergency room and ambulatory visits, respectively; and 832 and 115 fewer short-term and long-term rehabilitation cases, respectively. Total benefits ($60.7 million) from reductions in health service use ($44.2 million), work absences ($7.5 million), and mortality ($8.9 million) would exceed program costs ($20.1 million), resulting in a benefit-cost ratio of 3.01:1., A law requiring bicycle riders in Israel to wear helmets would save about three times as much as it would cost. Conservative estimates of the saving in lives, injuries, hospitalization, time off from work and other factors suggests that requiring helmets would be very cost effective. Helmets for all of Israel's bicycle riders would cost about $19.5 million. A public education campaign for five years would cost a little more than another half million. If compliance were 85%, based on how much Israelis obey the seat beat law, about 57 deaths and 2,544 hospitalizations would be prevented during those five years. Over 13,000 visits to emergency rooms and twice that many ambulatory care visits would be prevented also. The direct savings alone would be more than $40 million.

The bicycle safety standard promulgated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in the 1960s is ineffective in saving nearly 1,000 bicyclists from death and over 500,000 more from serious injury. The standard's defects lie in some provisions that are unneccessary and not directly related to safety. The CPSC's decision not to scrap the standard despite its defects clearly points to the need for a new system of regulatory review for government agencies.

Better police reporting of crashes involving bikes could aid in building safer environments for bicyclists, found a study published in April in Injury Prevention. In examining police crash reporting templates [...]