Portland Auto Accident Attorney

Oregon Car And Bike Accidents - Helmet use and bike safety vs. bike riding convenience.

Bike v. Car Accident, Helmet Use, and Brain Injury - Do we really need to debate the pros and cons of bike helmet usage?

In Ft. Collins, Colorado, bike vs. car accidents are increasing, as well as the seriousness of the injuries.

Bicycle crashes are so common in Fort Collins that ambulances are equipped with bike racks. About 22 percent of all severe and fatal traffic crashes in recent years involved a bicycle, and the cyclist most often was at fault, according to reports from the city of Fort Collins […] A report from the city shows bicycle crashes made up 4 percent, or 585, of traffic crashes between 2007 and 2010. But they are the largest share, 22 percent, or 38, of severe/incapacitating injury and fatal crashes in the study […] "I've had some pretty seriously injured patients from auto-bike wrecks: multiple fractures, a guy dragged by a car (with an) abdominal cut," said Wyandt Holmes, spokesman for Poudre Valley EMS. [1]

Bike rider accident and car vs. bike accident fatalities also spiked this summer in Oregon, and right here in Portland. With the former Duck's and pro football player, Joey Harrington, who was wearing a bike helmet when a car struck him on his bike in Portland, the bike helmet itself became a symbol of bike safety or danger, but his doctors said the helmet likely saved Harrington's life, or at least from a potentially serious head injury.

Doctors say a bike helmet can save the rider from extreme head, kneck and spinal injury. Brain injuries may never heal.

Bike helmet haters, bike advocates, argue that the helmet gives the perception of biking as dangerous, that bike riders are risk takers.

Banged up and broken, Harrington survived. But three others died after being hit by vehicles. None wore helmets. At least two, including a 28-year-old man struck by a hit-and-run driver Friday morning in Southeast Portland, died from severe head trauma, police say […] Oregon Health & Science University trauma surgeon John Mayberry, who patched Harrington up, saw the scuffed and dented helmet. "Without it," Mayberry said, "I'm certain that he would have been brought in here with severe head injuries." [2]

Yet, in Canada, working on the bike share program, as here in Portland, and other cities in the USA, the bike helmet and some helmet laws, create problems for the plans of bike shares and some say stand in the way of more people using the bike share programs. In Canada there is actually a call to study the safety of city bike riding without helmets within the proposed bike share city, because that city has an all age bike law requirement.

[…] struggled to replicate the success of similar schemes in cities such as Paris and Montreal that don't have compulsory helmet laws. Professor Price, who is a former board member of Vancouver's transport authority, said Melbourne is one of just a few cities that had a bike scheme and compulsory helmet laws. He said while the scheme's growth was encouraging, it was being used around the world as an example that it's not possible to have a successful scheme and helmet laws. Melbourne riders, who pay as little as $2.50 to use a bike, can buy government subsidised helmets for $5 and return them for a $3 refund. [3]

The Portland Transportation describes this same issue on its page for the Portland bike share program:

Helmet use: Among the 230-plus bike sharing systems in the world, Melbourne is the only system to require helmets (existing law). Although bike crashes where cyclists do not wear helmets are more likely to result in traumatic injuries, logistical barriers to providing helmets are numerous: Staffing each bike sharing station to provide a helmet and make sure it is properly sized and fitted is cost prohibitive (e.g., Lyon, FR has 24,000 trips/day). Hygiene (think of helmets shared by thousands of strangers) Structural Integrity of helmets used by hundreds if not thousands of users. To date, none of the US systems have had reports of crashes are minimal. Surveys from Minneapolis and DC find that over half of users are wearing helmets. [4]

In New York City as well, bike helmets, the movements to improve the street designs for better bike safety, and the bike share program are also facing this issue, head on.

Making helmets compulsory, they contend, could actually make cycling less safe. The more bikes on the street, their thinking goes, the safer bike-riding is; and helmet laws discourage people from joining in, because of either the cost and inconvenience of buying a helmet or fears of fines. City officials and some experts say helmet laws have hindered bike-share programs in other places […] The city strongly encourages wearing helmets but requires them only for riders under age 14 and professional delivery people. Those mandates are part of a law, signed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg in 2007, that requires employers to supply delivery cyclists with helmets and other safety gear, like lighting and bells […] The Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute, based in Arlington, Va., has long supported helmet laws for all riders. Its director, Randy Swart, said the risk of brain injury, which unlike a broken bone or a cut may not heal, was reason enough to don a helmet for every bike trip. [5]

As a Portland car accident attorney, I would encourage all bike riders to wear helmets, make sure the helmet is fitted properly as it will not protect you as well if it isn't, and make sure you replace your bike helmet as the directions suggest. I want everyone to be able to enjoy riding their bikes. I also know how devastating a brain injury can be, and how even a mild bike car accident can result in a devastating brain injury.

RESOURCES

1. Fort Collins strives to reduce bicycle collisions. Bike racks on ambulances accommodate crash victims. Oct. 15, 2011

2. Joey Harrington crash in Portland shows benefits of wearing bike helmets, but some riders aren't persuaded. Joseph Rose, The Oregonian August 13, 2011

3. Call for trials to test safety of city cycling without helmets Reid Sexton October 14, 2011

4. Bike Share FAQs Portland Bureau of Transportation

5. A Gentle Push for Bikers, Not a Shove October 14, 2011