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Most individuals who incur head injuries because of bike-related accidents or crashes chose to ride with no helmet, says Dr. Ellen Omi, trauma surgeon at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Chicago. In fact, the nation’s Injury Prevention Foundation’s ThinkFirst reports that just 20 to 25 percent of all bicyclists wear helmets, even though properly fitted bicycle helmets are recognized to reduce the risk of head trauma up to 87 percent.
These statistics continue to raise safety concerns now that increasingly more cities in the United States are implementing bike-sharing programs. Typically, these programs don’t provide helmets using the rentals.
In June 2013, Chicago launched Divvy, a bike-sharing program with 3,000 bicycles that can be rented Twenty-four hours a day and returned to any from the 300 stations round the city. The initiative was launched to give Chicagoans a simple-to-use and budget-friendly mode of transportation. However, helmet rentals aren’t part of the program. “These programs are great simply because they promote physical activity, but simultaneously, they should really offer helmets on-site since this is a matter of public safety,” Dr. Omi says.
In new research published online in June on the website from the American Journal of Public Health, researchers examined bike-injury statistics and compared bike-sharing cities to non-bike sharing cities. They determined that the proportion of head injuries to any or all other injuries from bicycle accidents increased nearly 8 percent in cities with bike-sharing programs. In cities not offering bike-sharing, head injuries decreased about 4 percent throughout the 36-month duration of the research.
While Dr. Omi states that bicyclists most often arrived at hospital emergency departments with non-life-threatening injuries for example fractured arms and ribs, she has treated her share of head injuries from cycling.
“People have been transported to our medical center with severe brain injuries, which are often long-term. Depending on the harshness of the top injury, a patient may become permanently disabled or even die,” Dr. Omi states. ThinkFirst reports that just about 70 percent of fatal bicycle crashes involve head injuries.
“Whether someone is pedaling his very own bike or taking part in a bike-sharing program, wearing head gear is essential to protecting the top from serious injury” Dr. Omi says. “Bike sharing is definitely an activity that may have overall health benefits. Not utilizing a helmet to minimize risk for injury is incompatible having a healthy exercise.”
