This week at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual week the importance of bicycle helmets, especially among the youths was addressed in a new study, that showed that there are fewer deaths among riders in states with mandatory helmet laws.
“This study highlights the importance of regulations in the promotion of safe exercise,” said lead author William P. Meehan III, MD, FAAP, director of the Micheli Center for Sports Injury Prevention and the Sports Concussion Clinic at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Meehan and his colleagues analyzed data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System on all U.S. bicyclists younger than 16 years of age who were severely injured or died between January 1999 and December 2009. They compared the injury and death rates in states with mandatory helmet laws to those without.
States with mandatory helmet laws had significantly lower rates of fatalities/incapacitating injuries after bicycle-motor vehicle collisions than states without helmet laws (2 per 1 million children vs. 2.5 per 1 million children, respectively).
Currently, only 21 states and the District of Columbia have laws requiring bicyclists to wear helmets.
[Via News Medical Net: Study highlights the importance of bicycle helmets]