Summer Bike Safety: Use Your Head, Use Your Helmet

WGN9 Medical Watch, May 14, 2008 -- In tonight's Medical Watch -- it's fun, it's fast and it's the number one cause of brain injury ... a bike. And believe it or not just wearing a helmet is not enough. Parents and kids need to use their heads.

Claudia: "It keeps your head safe."

Out of the mouths of babes ... at 8 years old they listen to their parents advice about bicycle helmets.

"If you fall you don't know what's going to happen to you. So you should always wear a helmet."

But as they age it's a bit more difficult to let criticism roll off the back.

Brendan: "We've got a lot of friends who say 'Why do you wear it? It's not cool, nobody wears it anymore.'"

Natalie: "Even though you may be a confident bike rider and experienced there may be unexpected things that may happen like a car that doesn't stop or something like that."

And at a faster pace for teens on bikes, a helmet is just as important to protect their more mature brain as it is the developing toddler's.

Dr. Gail Rosseau, CINN Neurosurgeon: "Skull fracture, brain injury, bruising on the brain ... the brain is very very soft although the skull is hard it's not gong to protect you from everything."

A helmet's important even for adults. Neurosurgeon Dr. Gail Rousseau saw a man after his bike crash last week.

Dr. Rosseau: "Head over the handlebars and he had a skull fracture but he's alive today because his helmet broke, his skull broke but he was ok."

Dr. Rosseau: "You're not actually wearing it right."

If a helmet doesn't fit properly a person is twice as likely to suffer a head injury than those who know how to make it fit.

Dr. Rosseau: "You want to make sure that the helmet is on and forward enough so that if you look up you can just barely see the front of the helmet.

Then look to the sides.

Dr. Rosseau: "When you look at these little y-shaped straps you want them to be right underneath your ear."

And finally, yawn to make sure you've not slept through the lesson.

Dr. Rosseau: "You should, when you open your mouth wide, feel a little bit of tug. Did you feel it? A little bit of tug so it snugs the hat on."

Despite the statistics showing 80% to 90% of brain injuries can be prevented by a bicycle helmet... only about 40% of kids wear them. The number is even less for adults.