Question:
Nearly 28 million children ride bicycles and the popularity of scooters, skateboards and inline skates has been skyrocketing. SAFE KIDS examined data from the National Pediatric Trauma Registry (from 1994 to 2001) to look closely at the number of children who have suffered a traumatic brain injury. In addition, SAFE KIDS commissioned a national survey with tweens to look at their attitudes and behaviors toward helmet use during all wheel-related activity. The findings are documented in a report titled: A National Study of Traumatic Brain Injury and Wheel-Related Sports. Why don’t tweens wear helmets?

Answer: Note the dismay about the fact that only 9 percent of kids thought it likely that they would suffer a brain injury while riding! Obviously, the writers of the article feel it IS "likely" that any given child will suffer brain injuries from merely being on wheels! Furthermore, they are doing their best to promote this viewpoint in the public mind!

If I had a choice, I certainly wouldn't wear one if it it made me uncomfortably hot. I've looked at many sets of data before huge increases in helmet wearing when laws were introduced and I really don't believe there's any evidence to suggest helmets work well enough to make it worth wearing them, if it's at all inconvenient.

There's even a theory that, though helmets prevent minor wounds to the head, they may even increase the risk of brain injury because they increase the size and mass of the head which may increase the turning forces on the head, leading to rotational injury. (Most brain injuries are what is known as DAI (diffuse axonal injury) caused by roatations of the head, not direct blows.) Being realistic about what they can do means understanding that they can make a difference in many seemingly minor accidents, and can make the difference between a small or no injury and a larger more potentially serious injury. Since most bicycle mishaps are indeed minor, a helmet can be of help. Realizing what a helmet can't do means realizing that if one gets hit hard or hits something hard a helmet is not designed nor it is likely to make enough of a difference to prevent serious injury or death.

a good reason not to wear one is that the individual doesn't want to which, for other than racing, is the case for me. I don't want to sound immodest but I have decades of experience and have accumulated knowledge on the subject through extensive research. I have found the theory and injury data consistent with the practice, so I have no qualms about advising folks, including children, when asked, "if you don't care to wear a helmet don't, it's OK". Of course, that sends the mothering types and interfering busybodies into orbit. Too bad, I say. In virtually all cases, they don't have my "palmares" (so to speak).