Brain Injury Overview

Florida Bicycle Helmet Law

National statistics on child bicycle riders

• About 28 million kids ride bicycles in the United States.
• In 1998, 194 children between the ages of 5 and 14 were killed on a bicycle; 125 of those died of a traumatic brain injury.
• Approximately 20,000 children sustain a non-lethal brain injury while riding a bike annually.
• Wearing a helmet prevents as much as 85 percent of head injuries and 88 percent of severe brain injuries.
• Every helmet purchased reduces medical costs by about $395.

One would be inclined to believe these facts would be enough to dissuade kids from choosing to ride without a helmet. However, a survey conducted in 1994 showed that just around half of our country's children owned a helmet, and only half of those wore the helmet almost every time they got on a bike. It appears that educating children is not enough to convince them to be safe. According to a study printed in the American Journal of Epidemiology, legislation mandating children wear helmets on bicycles is the answer.

On January 1, 1997, the State of Florida passed a law that requires all children under the age of 16 to wear a helmet. Throughout the inaugural year, police issued verbal warnings and handed out pamphlets on bicycle safety. Beginning January 1, 1998, law enforcement was given the authority to administer $15 tickets to any child caught riding a bike without a helmet. State government gave individual counties the choice whether they wanted to uphold this law, and three chose not to adopt it.

After the law went into effect, researchers tracked children riding their bikes to public schools all across Florida. They recorded the number of kids who were or were not wearing a helmet as they arrived to school. Counties enforcing a helmet law had a 79 percent success rate of children wearing helmets, but in those without the law, just a third of the students wore them.