Bicycle-Related Injuries

• In 1999, 750 bicyclists died in crashes. More than one-quarter were children ages 5 to 15.
   
• More than 95% of bicyclists killed were not wearing helmets.
   
• An estimated 140,000 children are treated each year in emergency departments for head injuries sustained while bicycling.

1. Convening groups to develop and implement a
national bicycle safety plan;

2. Evaluating the effectiveness of existing safety and injury prevention programs;

3. Funding pilot programs to determine how to influence those hardest to reach with bicycle safety messages;

4. Encouraging development of state and local      bicycle helmet use laws and evaluating their      effectiveness.

A national plan for bicycle safety
Increasing safety and reducing injury were the focus when a panel of bicycling enthusiasts, safety advocates, and public health professionals met in July 2000 to draft a national action plan for bicycle safety. CDC, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Federal Highway Administration, and the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center sponsored the meeting. The national plan will guide policy makers, safety specialists, educators, and the bicycling community in developing programs to increase safety for bicyclists and reduce bicycle-related injuries. The plan, published by NHTSA in 2001, addresses five practical issues:

• Road sharing
   
• Enhanced bicycle safety education
  
• Increased use of bicycle helmets
   
• Enhanced law enforcement to promote bicycle
  safety
  
• Bicycle facilities and community planning for bicycle safety

Multifaceted programs increase helmet use
By the end of 2000, helmet use in 15 communities had risen from 40% to 55%, exceeding the Healthy People 2000 goal. These communities in California, Colorado, Florida, Oklahoma, and Rhode Island had conducted CDC-funded programs to increase bicycle helmet use among children 5 to 12 years old. The programs included helmet giveaways and educational interventions. In the programs' first two and a half years, community staff distributed approximately 60,000 helmets and provided educational interventions to 104,000 children in schools and communities.

CDC research influences Healthy People 2010 goals
Findings from CDC research contributed to the Healthy People 2010 working group's recommendation that all 50 states enact helmet use laws. CDC scientists evaluated state helmet use laws in Georgia and Oregon and found that such laws can increase helmet use. CDC also found that local enforcement of those laws is highly effective. In one community, enforcement increased helmet use from 0% to 45%. The improvement was sustained over two years.

Marketing and education not enough to increase helmet use
In 1997, CDC researchers worked with the Texas Department of Health to evaluate the effectiveness of education and marketing in increasing helmet use in an isolated community. The study found short-term increases in helmet use, but no long-term improvements. Teens in the study community were particularly resistant to wearing a helmet, regardless of the approach employed. The findings indicate that widespread distribution of helmets, even when accompanied by education, is not adequate to get youths to wear helmets. Practitioners must explore other strategies such as parental supervision or local and state helmet use laws.

Promoting helmet use among hard-to-reach teens and young adults
Middle school, high school, and university students have the lowest helmet use rates and frequently disobey traffic laws while cycling. In October 2000, the Injury Center began supporting researchers in Phoenix to conduct a three-year program to increase bicycle safety and helmet use among these populations. Results of the program's evaluation are expected in 2003.

Future activities to increase bicycle safety and decrease bicycle-related injuries include continued work with national bicycle and safety organizations to implement strategies identified in the national plan for safe bicycling. These strategies include:

• Increasing bicycle helmet use among all Americans.
   
• Conducting national campaigns to educate bicyclists about the need to always wear helmets and to encourage drivers to share the road with bicyclists.
   
• Evaluating the effectiveness of state and local legislation and policies regarding bicycle helmet use.
  
• Developing state and local coalitions to advance working relationships between groups that promote bicycling, groups that promote physical activity, and groups that promote and develop livable communities with safe environments for bicyclists.
   
• Identifying effective community strategies to increase bicycle helmet use and bicycle safety and promoting wide-spread adoption of such strategies

If every bicycle rider wore a helmet, that action alone would prevent an estimated 150 deaths and another 100,000 nonfatal head injuries each year.

Bicycle helmets reduce the risk of serious head injury by as much as 85% and the risk of brain injury by as much as 88%. Helmets have also been shown to reduce the risk of injury to the upper and mid-face by 65%.

Unfortunately, only about one-quarter of children ages 5 to 14 wear helmets when riding bicycles. The percentage of teen cyclists who wear helmets is close to zero. Children and adolescents most commonly complain that helmets are not fashionable or "cool," that their friends don't wear them, and that helmets are uncomfortable (usually too hot). Riders also say they do not think about the importance of bicycle helmets, nor about the need to protect themselves from injury, particularly if they are not riding in traffic.

This page last reviewed July17, 2002

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control