Children’s Bicycle Helmets Proven Effective in Impact and Crush Tests

Bicycling is a favorite physical activity engaged in by Americans, and children are among its most ardent participants. It has been estimated that 70 percent of children between the ages of five and 14 ride bicycles. However, bicycling is not without its dangers; one of the worst is risk of head and brain injury during a crash.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, head injury is the most common cause of death and serious disability from bicycle crashes. The best protection offered to mitigate this injury is the bicycle helmet, but few bicyclists wear helmets regularly, and children are less inclined to wear helmets than adults. In fact, national estimates of helmet use among children range from just 15 to 25 percent.

To determine just how effective bike helmets can be, neurosurgeon Tobias Mattei, MD, and his research team at the Illinois Neurological Institute and Bradley University tested how well helmets withstood forces of impact and crush tests when covering human cadaver skulls. They discovered that wearing a helmet can reduce the acceleration experienced by the skull during an impact by up to 87 percent and can aid the skull in resisting forces up to 470 pounds in a crush accident. Full details on the results can be found in “Performance analysis of the protective effects of bicycle helmets during impact and crush tests in pediatric skull models. Laboratory investigation,” by Mattei and colleagues, published online, ahead of print, in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics. For more information, click here for the full release