“Every bike ride begins with putting on a helmet.” — U.S. Department of Transportation
Simple enough, right? I wish.
Statistics show that more adults and children than ever before are injured or killed riding bicycles or other non-vehicular wheeled transportation such as scooters and skateboards.
Yet California looks the other way.
Call me “nanny” in a world of “nanny state” mentality. But I’d rather be called names than have one more adult or child hurt or dead.
California law allows adults without helmets to ride bicycles, a dumb and dangerous decision — unless you’re in need of a donated organ.
Children don’t fair much better.
Sure, the law requires minors 17 years old and younger to wear helmets when riding wheeled contraptions such as bicycles. But parents and far too many law enforcement officers look the other way.
In my neighborhood, for example, most evenings I’m treated to a display of derring-do or sheer idiocy, depending on your preference for safety or blood.
Two girls, one about eight, the other about six, rip along in the middle of streets on motorized scooters that — and I am not making this up — zoom along at a solid 10 miles an hour.
Now, 10 mph may not seem like a lot if you’re tucked safely in a car. But hitting the asphalt at 10 miles an hour can destroy flesh, bone and skull, especially if a child is struck by a vehicle.
Yet that’s not what terrifies me.
What terrifies me is that these kids don’t wear helmets, an occurrence I see more and more.
Over the weekend, I felt like I had gone back a half-century to when helmets weren’t readily available as I watched three boys zooming along on mountain bikes — sans helmets.
I don’t believe in chasing children any more than I believe in telling parents what to do. But I do believe in legislators and law enforcement doing their job.
If you don’t think this mayhem affects you, it does.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that bicycle injuries and deaths in a single year costs this nation as much as $10 billion.
Too many fatalities
“Bicycle helmet laws,” the CDC points out, “are effective for increasing helmet use and reducing crash-related injuries and deaths among children and adults.”
In some areas, deaths are ticking downward a bit. According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, for example, vehicle-related cycling deaths last year totaled 14, a drop from 16 deaths the previous year.
That’s a trend I hope will continue. But you are smart enough to know that the small decrease is as much — or more — about the miracles of modern medicine than careful cyclists and drivers.
Consider that as recently as Oct. 19, a cyclist was struck and killed by two cars in the North Hills neighborhood in Los Angeles.
According to the cycling advocacy group BikingInLA.com Southern California has witnessed more than 60 cycling deaths this year.
Between 2010 and 2017 (the latest year available), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports cycling fatalities increased by a whopping 35%.
In 2017, nearly 800 people were killed riding bicycles. Not surprisingly, there has been a corresponding increase in bicycle injuries — many of which are never reported.
I’ll add that California has one of the highest death rates in the nation, and Los Angeles and San Francisco made the top 10 list for the most deadly cities.
Yet there is no helmet law for adult cyclists.
Share the road
To say vehicle and bicycle safety is a two-way street is both literally and figuratively true.
“A large percentage of crashes,” points out the NHTSA, “can be avoided if motorists and cyclists follow the rules of the road and watch out for each other.”
I know the idea of sharing the road drives some drivers crazy. A bicycle, some say, doesn’t have a chance against a car and shouldn’t be on the road.
But our tax dollars, common sense and our changing world argue otherwise. Instead of gobbling up more fossil fuels, the League of American Bicyclists tells us that more people are commuting by bike.
California law states that cyclists have the same rights to the road as drivers and — cyclists take note — drivers have the same rights as cyclists.
This means pelotons (large groups of cyclists drafting behind one another) can’t block access to side streets, blow traffic signals and, sorry guys, ignore stop signs.
At the same time, drivers shouldn’t speed ahead of cyclists and suddenly make a right turn. By law, drivers also must be sure to have a three-foot cushion of space before passing a bicycle.
I could go on. But let’s get back to why helmets matter and why we need an adult helmet law.
If you ride a bicycle at night, here’s what California requires: white front lamp, red rear reflector, white or yellow reflectors on the pedals, reflectors on each side of the bike’s front and rear.
After all this legislation, what’s missing? The same thing that motorcyclists are required to wear — a helmet.
Troublesome words
Rosenthal and Kreeger is a California law firm that specializes in injuries, but also does actual research that tilts toward actually saving lives.
“Since helmet laws have been instituted in the majority of states, at least for children the death rate for that age group has decreased,” the firm points out. “But research shows that over half of adult bicyclists still do not use a helmet at all.
“Since the most serious injuries in crashes for bicyclists are to the head, the death rate for adult riders is still too high.”
Troublesome words. But the firm’s very real and very scary research found something even more troublesome. “Only 48 percent of children wore helmets when riding their bikes.”
In a state that requires minors but not adults to wear helmets, that sad statistic is hardly surprising.
My grandmother had a saying that drove me nuts, but was true. “Monkey see, monkey do.”
With more adults on bikes, it’s time to have the same helmet law in California for all ages.
Unless you want your spouse or child to be an organ donor.
