Research has found that wearing a bicycle helmet reduces the risk of a brain injury in a bicycle crash by as much as 80 percent. A new study by Australian researchers confirms this fact. Bicycle helmets that meet nationally certified standards are very effective at helping to prevent brain injuries during an accident, the researchers found.
When a bicyclist who is not wearing a helmet is involved in a collision, the head is exposed to acceleration forces that are up to 9.5 times greater than if the bicyclist had been wearing a helmet.
The researchers used crash test dummies to measure the impact when loads were placed on a human head in a variety of scenarios that closely resembled actual situations when cyclists fall off a bicycle. The dummy head and neck were dropped from various heights onto moving surfaces to replicate real-world accident situations.
The researchers measured angular and linear acceleration as well as other parameters. They found that a person who was not wearing a helmet was likely to suffer a concussion if the head was dropped just half a meter while stationary. In fact, the research found that helmets continue to protect a bicyclist from serious injuries until the most serious impacts.
That is not to say that helmets can completely eliminate the risk of a traumatic brain injury in a serious bicycle accident. However, when a bicyclist is wearing a Department of Transportation-approved helmet, the risks of s a head injury are substantially reduced.
The Washington traffic accident lawyer at The Abelson Law Firm, represent people injured as a result of bike and other types of accidents in the Washington area.
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