Wearing a helmet when you’re out riding a bike seems like the sensible thing to do but, as of this moment, not a single state in the U.S. has laws stating that helmet use is mandatory. That should change, and soon.
This is the recommendation of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB): active measures should be taken to decrease the number of cyclist fatalities, and laws should take care of the rest and mandate helmet use to prevent head injury when accidents do happen. For the record, the NTSB can only make recommendations, and not actually make state authorities follow through with it.
For the first time since 1972, the NTSB looked at bicyclist safety in the U.S. and determined that concrete action is needed to lower the number of fatalities in car-bike accidents.
The majority of them are still caused by drivers carelessly overtaking cyclists, so “improving roadway design, [and] enhancing the conspicuity of bicyclists through both visibility and technology” would be first on the list in terms of reducing the number of crashes.
Then, to lower the number of head injuries / fatalities in those cases when crashes do occur, cyclists would have to be legally forced to wear a helmet.
“If we do not improve roadway infrastructure for bicyclists, more preventable crashes will happen and more cyclists will die in those preventable crashes,” NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt says of the findings of the analysis. “If we do not enhance bicyclist conspicuity, more bicyclists will die in preventable crashes. If we do not act to mitigate head injury for more bicyclists, additional bicyclists will die.”
Crash avoidance measures and mandatory helmet laws would have to go hand in hand with cyclists’ commitment to follow traffic rules, just like everyone else, to effectively work in lowering the number of fatalities.
For the first time since 1972, the NTSB looked at bicyclist safety in the U.S. and determined that concrete action is needed to lower the number of fatalities in car-bike accidents.
The majority of them are still caused by drivers carelessly overtaking cyclists, so “improving roadway design, [and] enhancing the conspicuity of bicyclists through both visibility and technology” would be first on the list in terms of reducing the number of crashes.
Then, to lower the number of head injuries / fatalities in those cases when crashes do occur, cyclists would have to be legally forced to wear a helmet.
“If we do not improve roadway infrastructure for bicyclists, more preventable crashes will happen and more cyclists will die in those preventable crashes,” NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt says of the findings of the analysis. “If we do not enhance bicyclist conspicuity, more bicyclists will die in preventable crashes. If we do not act to mitigate head injury for more bicyclists, additional bicyclists will die.”
Crash avoidance measures and mandatory helmet laws would have to go hand in hand with cyclists’ commitment to follow traffic rules, just like everyone else, to effectively work in lowering the number of fatalities.