Bicycling and Skating Safety Fact Sheet

Key Facts

• Each year, approximately 140 children are killed as bicyclists.

• Children sustain more than 275,000 nonfatal bicycle injuries each year.

• Nearly 690 children are injured daily due to bicycle-related crashes.

• A total of 251,366 total child bicyclist injuries were recorded in 2005.

• An estimated 14,000 youth bicyclists were injured involving a motor vehicle in 2005.

• More than 70 percent of children ages 5 to 14 ride a bicycle regularly.

• National estimates report that bicycle helmet use among child bicyclists ranges from 15 percent to 25 percent.

• Apart from the automobile, bicycles are tied to more childhood injuries than any other consumer product.

Wheeled Sports Safety

• Each year, children between the ages of 0-14 years, sustain an estimated 38,155 roller skating injuries and represent 57 percent of all rollerblading/in-line skating injuries.

• Each year, there are approximately 61,000 injuries to children involving skateboards.

• In 2004, an estimated number of 18,743 head injuries were treated in emergency rooms due to skateboarding.

When and Where

• 53 percent of children (16 years and under) are killed bicycling on minor roads (connecting roads and neighborhood streets) compared to 46 percent killed bicycling on major roads (high-volume roads across cities and towns).

For motor vehicle-related bicycle crashes:

• 69 percent of child bicyclist deaths occur during warmer months (May - October)

• 58 percent of child bicyclist deaths occur at non-intersection locations.

• 70 percent of deaths occur between 2-8 p.m.

Who

• It has been estimated that 75 percent of fatal head injuries among child bicyclists could have been prevented with a bicycle helmet.

• Children are five times more likely to be injured in a bicycle-related crash than older riders (15 years and older).

• Males account for 82 percent of bicycle-related deaths. Males make up 70 percent of nonfatal injuries among children.

• More children ages 5 to 14 are seen in hospital emergency rooms for injuries related to biking than any other sport.

Proven Interventions

• Universal use of bicycle helmets by children ages 4 to 15 could prevent between 135 and 155 deaths, between 39,000 and 45,000 head injuries, and between 18,000 and 55,000 scalp and face injuries annually.

• Helmet use can reduce the risk of head injury by 85 percent and severe brain injury by 88 percent.

• Various studies show that bicycle helmet legislation is effective in increasing bicycle helmet use and reducing bicycle-related death and injury among children covered under the law.

• One study showed that within the five years of passage of a state mandatory bicycle helmet law for children ages 13 and under, bicycle-related fatalities decreased by 60 percent. Police enforcement increases the effectiveness of these laws.

Health Care Costs and Savings

• In the United States, every $11 spent on a bicycle helmet generates $570 in benefits to society.

• If 85 percent of all child cyclists wore helmets every time they rode bikes for one year, the lifetime medical cost savings could total between $134 million and $174 million.

Laws and Regulations

• Twenty-one states, the District of Columbia and more than 140 localities have enacted some form of bicycle helmet legislation.

• Eight states and District of Columbia require children to wear a helmet while on scooters, in-line skates and skateboards.

• The rate of bicycle helmet use by children ages 14 and under was 58 percent greater in a county with a fully comprehensive bike helmet law than in a similar county with a less comprehensive law.