The Helmet Update
Volume 23, #4 - August 3, 200
All issues index
NHTSA has published a large helmet law study
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has just put up on its website a new 219 page
study of bicycle helmet laws.
The study was done by independent researcher Carol Stroebel. She examined six communities where helmet laws of various
kinds had been passed, including one where it was subsequently repealed. The study analyzes the findings in twenty pithy
pages titled Analysis, providing acres of detail if you need it. Some of the themes that emerge:
- The major stakeholders in enacting a law are usually emergency medicine professionals, pediatricians, and a
coalition focused on children's safety, injury prevention, or bicycling and bicycle safety.
- The bicycling community has been divided at times on this issue; and law enforcement, though usually not deeply
involved, may have a "make-or-break" role;
- Typically, few citations are issued under these laws and they are not a priority for enforcement agencies;
- Even though the laws may be little enforced, they are seen as valuable leverage (especially for parents) for
increasing bicycle helmet use;
- The evolving role of bicycling and the bicycling community in the changing transportation mix will influence the
strategies, issues and constituents involved in future bicycle safety efforts.
To increase the effectiveness of the laws the study suggests:
- Law enforcement must make the law a priority; if the law is not enforced, it loses its effectiveness.
- Ongoing efforts in education and awareness are needed, similar to those supporting safety belt laws.
- Proponents should educate the news media about the need for the law.
- The public needs to be better educated on the physics of injury.
- Those implementing the law must "continuously deliver the message" about bicycle helmet use and the law.
Here is
the study on our server. We don't find it on the NHTSA server any more. We are
including it now on our Toolkit CD.
The Helmet Update - Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute
Randy Swart, Editor
4611 Seventh Street South
Arlington, VA 22204-1419 USA
(703) 486-0100 (voice)
(703) 486-0576 (fax)
www.helmets.org