While bicycle accidents in Colorado have increased over the years, there is no Denver Bicycle law requiring the use of helmets. Colorado remains among the twenty-some states that still do not have a law requiring bicyclists to wear helmets.
There can be no doubt that bicycle helmets work to prevent injuries and deaths. The evidence can be overwhelming. Each year there are over half a million emergency room visits related to bicycle injuries nationwide. The Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute states that non-helmeted riders are 14 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than helmeted riders. Consumer Reports stated that 92% of cyclists killed in 2007 accidents were not wearing a helmet. Several studies have concluded that helmets can reduce the risk of head and brain injuries by an average of 85 percent.
The numbers seem undisputable. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration cites that 70 percent of bicyclists involved in a fatal crash suffer from head injuries. Colorado car accidents involve a substantial number of collisions with bicyclists. Head injury can mean brain injury—and traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of death and serious injury in sports and recreation related accidents, it seems.
We know bicycle helmets work. When designed with the proper technology, they perform successfully to protect the skull and brain during impact in studies.
Yet, bicyclists in the Netherlands and Copenhagen wear no helmets and have a lower fatality rate. Many argue that enforcing helmet laws results in an undesirable decrease in numbers of active cyclists on the road. But as bicycle injuries have increased on Colorado roadways, there is an active movement by city officials to encourage more residents to commute by bicycle, along with increased signage. Some studies have suggested that increased cyclists on the road actually means decreased bike accidents as more motorists become aware of the trend. As in the Netherlands and Copenhagen, there can be a safety in numbers.
Much of Colorado does not have the same biking infrastructure as established European centers where bicyclists travel in packs across several lanes. As Colorado increases its number of bicyclists, there can be an improvement in traffic engineering and better bike paths to help modify motorist behavior.
For people unaccustomed to wearing a helmet, the big disadvantage is they can seem cumbersome, inconvenient and uncomfortable or hot. They look silly, pretentious or unstylish. They feel more constricting than a hat or bandana.
In the meantime, it is statistically in a cyclist’s favor to wear a helmet on sprawling Colorado roads where the infrastructure is not as developed around bicycles.
