Anyone with direct experience of teenagers wearing helmets?

I live near a couple of

I live near a couple of schools and there are quite a few kids on bikes in the mornings – although probably about 95% boys, very few girls on them.

They seem to be a mix of helmet on head, done up, helmet on head not done up, helmet hanging on handlebars and no helmet whatsoever.

I doubt cost of a helmet is an issue when you can get one for that age group for £15-20 upwards and you could probably haggle one thrown in with a new bike purchase – many shops seems to give you 10% of the cost of the bike in accessories these days

My daughter rode her own bike to pre-school for the first time this morning – wearing a helmet. I think it’s a sensible thing to wear, especially as she hasn’t quite figured out her brakes yet – I’ve been glad of mine on at least 3 occasions.

Youngest son used to race BMX
Youngest son used to race BMX so helmet was obligatory and he soon realised after a few crashes why the appropriate PPE was required because even with helmets, gloves, padded trousers and long sleeved top there was still ample opportunity for painful injury.

Last weekend I landed heavily on my head during a cycle race and was able to ride on rather than spend an afternoon in A&E because I was lucky and part of that luck was in wearing a helmet that did what it was supposed to.

I do not wear a helmet for casual use or for my short urban commute neither do I insist that my son wears one when he goes to see his friends. He will wear one of his own volition if they are planning on going to do something stupid. I encourage stupid, it is a great teacher of consequences.

I am a firm believer in the school of hard knocks. Though one obviously has no wish for children to come to serious harm, there is nothing you can tell them about playing with fire that is a millionth as effective as actually getting their fingers burned. They need to fall out of trees, learn that knives will cut you, that falling off a bicycle at even low speed can really hurt when they are small enough to bounce and heal quickly. You can then teach them how to mitigate risk and how to deal with minor injury, but they have to learn the pain for themselves. When they are older you can tell the kids that never got gravel rash by falling off a bicycle, they are the muppets who hire holiday scooters and ride round in shorts and flip flops. Who get in a car and drive without awareness of the consequences of crashing and who seem generally unaware of their personal responsibility for their own safety. It is no kindness to wrap them in cotton wool as children.

rnick wrote:

rnick wrote:

I’ve a teen and pre teen, both riding for years. They reach for a helmet as a matter of habbit, no parental input required. Both have experienced offs and seen how the helmet helped protect their head. We’re still waiting for clothes to be picked up, homework done so the regular teen s**t fest is all in place.

So they were indoctrinated BEFORE having the offs then, or are you saying you had zero input in their original choice to wear or not to wear, because children will never come out at a young age and say i want to wear a helmet. That’s why they now reach for them and IF they hadn’t being wearing them do you think the chances of having the off would have being more or less?

Even the health and safety executive and play safety forum are wanting children to find their own boundaries and not be cotton wooled so much.

stats from England and Wales show 19 children died solely of a head injury in a motorvehicle incident, compared to 6 dying whilst cycling as a child in the whole of the UK, none demonstrably proven could have been saved by a helmet, that’s even if they were wearing one.

I gave my son the option aged

I gave my son the option aged 10 when cycling to school (steep downhill so he was well over 25mph every morning), he wore it once then dispensed with it for the next 7 years whilst cycling to school, it was his choice and knowing what I know I was totally fine with that.

You must allow children to find their own boundaries, IMHO by forcing a helmet onto children you are in fact making them think they can do more dangerous stuff as they are affected by risk homeostosis more than adults.

I am in the same situation again taking gt nephews for bike rides, if they want to wear one I would be fine with that, as it happens they don’t and the subject matter never comes up. Maybe as I’m a non wearer they simply follow my lead but children would not automatically reach for a helmet unless they are indoctrined/instructed to. in any case.

With regards to what the women saw it’s easier to control the small ones than it is the older ones, the older ones if forced are more likely to just not bother at all and this again is found in the stats in australia where teenage girls gave up cycling in one state at an incredible 94% compared to pre helmet laws. The overall affect on child cycling when forced to wear helmets was and still is being felt.

Whatever the reasons trying to force kids to do something that is either uncomfortable, uncool, doesn’t have a good explanation to do so or is too much hassle is always going to be a bone of contention.