CHILDREN CYCLING - WEAR A HELMET Police Scotland are determined to improve road safety and our mantra is ‘keeping people safe’. Hopefully the summer months will bring lots of sunshine and fine weather, with this there will be an increase of cyclists on our roads, particularly children in housing estates. The wearing of helmets by cyclists is not compulsory however, it is a preventative measure that may save a life or reduce injury. There is strong evidence that children would benefit the most from wearing a helmet whilst cycling, it may save their life. Cyclists and Parents could consider the following: Why does the injury prevention community advocate helmets? Why are emergency room doctors among the strongest advocates? The doctors see the injuries, close up and personal. The injury prevention community believes helmets are the best short-term intervention for reducing cyclists brain injuries while we are improving the safety of roads and other facilities. Why use a helmet? Helmets are useful as safety gear to prevent injuries in an uncontrolled environment. If you cant prevent a crash or impact, but you know it will occur, a helmet can prevent or minimise injury to the head and brain. We cannot emphasise enough that the first step in preventing injury is to minimise the probability of crashing or being impacted. Not hitting something hard is infinitely better than hitting it with a helmet on! There are many reasons for that statement. No helmet can protect against all possible impacts, and the impact may exceed the helmets protection. No helmet protects any part of the body that it does not cover, so even if the head injury is avoided you may sustain other injuries. Safety always involves compromises. The benefits of that approach extend to those other parts of the body that a helmet does not even attempt to protect. Further information regarding Road Safety and Cycling can be found at road-safety.org.uk/cycling
Posted on: Sun, 11 May 2014 09:28:44 +0000
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