Each year in the United States, more than 500,000 people are nonfatally injured while riding bicycles. In 1999, 750 bicyclists died in crashes. More than one-quarter were children ages 5 to 15.

More than 95% of bicyclists killed were not wearing helmets.

An estimated 140,000 children are treated each year in emergency departments for head injuries sustained while bicycling.

Five practical issues:

Road sharing

Enhanced bicycle safety education

Increased use of bicycle helmets

Enhanced law enforcement to promote bicycle safety

Bicycle facilities and community planning for bicycle safety

Future activities to increase bicycle safety and decrease bicycle-related injuries include continued work with national bicycle and safety organizations to implement strategies identified in the national plan for safe bicycling. These strategies include: Increasing bicycle helmet use among all Americans.

Conducting national campaigns to educate bicyclists about the need to always wear helmets and to encourage drivers to share the road with bicyclists.

Evaluating the effectiveness of state and local legislation and policies regarding bicycle helmet use.

Developing state and local coalitions to advance working relationships between groups that promote bicycling, groups that promote physical activity, and groups that promote and develop livable communities with safe environments for bicyclists.

Identifying effective community strategies to increase bicycle helmet use and bicycle safety and promoting wide-spread adoption of such strategies

Bicycle Helmets Prevent Injury and Death

If every bicycle rider wore a helmet, that action alone would prevent an estimated 150 deaths and another 100,000 nonfatal head injuries each year. Bicycle helmets reduce the risk of serious head injury by as much as 85% and the risk of brain injury by as much as 88%. Helmets have also been shown to reduce the risk of injury to the upper and mid-face by 65%.

Unfortunately, only about one-quarter of children ages 5 to 14 wear helmets when riding bicycles. The percentage of teen cyclists who wear helmets is close to zero. Children and adolescents most commonly complain that helmets are not fashionable or "cool," that their friends don't wear them, and that helmets are uncomfortable (usually too hot). Riders also say they do not think about the importance of bicycle helmets, nor about the need to protect themselves from injury, particularly if they are not riding in traffic.