blog home Bicycle Accident Teaching Children about Brain Damage Can Encourage Bicycle Helmet Use

Teaching Children about Brain Damage Can Encourage Bicycle Helmet Use

By Grant Law Office on November 14, 2012

Teaching your child about brain injuries may increase the likelihood that your child will wear a helmet. According to a recent news report in The Atlanta Business Chronicle, 92.6 percent of the children who received brain injury education were using a helmet on every ride a month after the program took place. Researchers with Georgia Health Sciences University provided brain injury prevention and bicycle helmet safety information to 120 children aged 5 to 18 and found that 96.2 percent who received the information were still wearing helmets three months later. The study points out that only 80 percent of children who received an abbreviated version of the information were still wearing a helmet.

If you have a child who rides a bike, it is crucial that you encourage him or her to wear a helmet every time. Bicycle helmet use greatly reduces the chances of fatal brain injuries, yet many children ride without them. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only one in four children aged 4 to 15 wear a helmet when they ride a bike. Teenagers almost never wear one.

The CDC reports that approximately 153,000 children are treated in emergency departments for bicycle-related head injuries each year. If more young riders wore bicycle helmets, the number of seriously injured victims would decrease dramatically, recent studies have found. A functional, formfitting helmet can save a life and they can be as cheap as $15.

The skilled Georgia bicycle accident attorneys at the Law Offices of Wayne Grant, P.C., have seen first-hand the type of devastation that can result from a Georgia bicycle accident. If you or a loved one has been hurt in a traffic accident, please call our offices for free at (404) 995-3955. We will fight hard to protect your rights and help you get the support you need.