• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Program stresses need for use of bike helmets

Photo

Photo by Dan Lassiter

Terry Michael of Mercy Hospital’s ThinkFirst program points out the features of the spine to a group of Rock Prairie Montessori students. According to the Bicycle Safety Institute, non-helmeted riders are 14 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than helmeted riders.

JANESVILLE — Officer Chad Sullivan was on bike patrol pumping his pedals hard when the crank broke.

His bulletproof vest slammed into the handlebars before he flipped over the front wheel and whacked his head on the curb so hard it cracked his helmet.

"It knocked me silly. I was hurt pretty bad," Sullivan said.

Without a helmet, "I probably would have been seriously injured if not killed."

Although bicycling is a good way to get around and get exercise, bike riding offers a lot of opportunities to get hurt, Sullivan said.

Local, state and national statistics support that.

The emergency department at Mercy Hospital, for example, saw 68 patients injured in bicycle accidents between May 2008 and April 2009, according to a Mercy Health System spokesperson.

Wisconsin in 2008 had 1,056 bicycle crashes that injured 1,007 bicyclists and killed nine, according to the Department of Transportation.

Nationally, 698 bicyclists were killed and 43,000 injured in traffic crashes, according National Highway Traffic Safety Administration statistics for 2007.

Injuries

Dr. Christopher Sturm, neurosurgeon at Mercy Hospital Janesville, said head injuries are the most common cause of bicycling deaths.

"Wearing a helmet significantly decreases the likelihood that you sustain a head injury," Sturm said.

Head injuries can range from skull fractures to significant brain injuries, he said. When that happens, the brain has no capability of recovery.

"It has no way of growing new brain cells or healing. When you're born, you have the brain cells you're going to have for the rest of your life," he said.

Sturm cited statistics from the Bicycle Safety Institute:

-- Non-helmeted riders are 14 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than helmeted riders.

-- Head injuries account for more than 60 percent of bicycle-related deaths.

-- Between 45 and 88 percent of bicyclist brain injuries can be prevented by wearing a helmet.

"That's significant," Sturm said.

Prevention

Most injuries, especially brain injuries, can be prevented by using a bicycle helmet and following bicycle safety rules, said Terry Michel, community education coordinator at Mercy Health System.

Michel has reached more than 800 students through classroom activities and community events since Mercy began offering the free ThinkFirst program in January. Based on the National Injury Prevention Foundation program, Mercy enhanced the four 50-minute sessions on bike, vehicle and pedestrian safety to fit the needs of the communities it serves.

"ThinkFirst is an injury prevention program dedicated to the prevention of traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries where we try to make the activities fun," she said.

"Bob the Bicyclist" helps demonstrate how wearing a helmet can prevent injuries. Michel draws a smiley face on Bob's head (a fresh egg) before telling the children Bob wants to ride his bicycle but doesn't want to wear a helmet.

"He thinks he's too cool and that wearing a helmet is for babies," she said.

As Bob rides on the ramp and falls, he hits his head, cracking the egg and releasing "brain matter" to seep from his "head."

At a recent demonstration, Michel said, her young audience giggled until a girl raised her hand.

"The girl said: 'You can go buy a new toy, but you can't go buy a new brain,'" Michel said.

"This little girl summed it up. It was like, wow! She gets it. Then so did the rest of the class."

The Janesville Police Department has been teaching bike safety for years through classroom presentations and its annual bike rodeo.

The rodeo is a chance for kids to practice bicycle skills, including control in an obstacle course and learning how to do a quick ABC—air, brakes, chain—bicycle check-up, Sullivan said.

Sullivan believes more people are bicycling because of the down economy and easy access to local trails, but he thinks not enough are wearing helmets.

He finds that hard to understand because a helmet might have saved his life.