Bicycle helmets for children in Japan

TBS news investigates what happens when a child riding on their parent’s bicycle gets into an accident:

Unsurprisingly, having the child wear a helmet dramatically reduces the amount of possible head injury. (Update: As noted in the comment section, the law is weakly worded and has no serious penalty for noncompliance.)

Last year, a law was passed requiring all children under the age of 13 to wear helmets when riding bicycles. Unfortunately, many parents are not following the rule, with a recent survey finding that the helmet-wearing rate in Tokyo is a mere 30%. (One woman interviewed said she tried to make her kid wear a helmet, but gave up after he displayed an unwillingness to wear it!)

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15 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - June 17, 2009 at 8:11 am

Categories: General Japan Tags: safety

http://www.blogspot.blastitwonner.com michael

re: “Last year, a law was passed requiring all children under the age of 13 to wear helmets when riding bicycles.”

It seems that the law falls short of an actual requirement to have children wear helmets. According to the news report, the law provides that parents/guardians are “obligated to endeavor” or “required to make efforts” (努力義務) to have children under 13 wear helmets. The term 「努力義務」indicates that there is no fine imposed for non-compliance. So the law is simply hortatory (and some might say toothless – 骨抜き).
http://witzl.blogspot.com/ Mary Witzl

We had an awful time getting our kids to wear bicycle helmets in Japan, and the same was true for getting them to put on sun screen lotion. Their friends didn’t do it, so they didn’t see why they should have to. It’s so much easier when there’s a law and everyone has to comply.
Tomas

Seems like so many parents don’t even make their kids wear seat belts. Helmet use is gonna be far off.
Marcello

Japan will catch up with the rest of the world eventually. Wearing a bicycle helmet, regardless of age, has been mandatory in all states of Australia since 1992. There is a $50 fine for not wearing a helmet, and the police in Australia actually will fine you if they see you breaking the law.

Some people believe helmets give us a false sense of security and actually increase accidents. Helmet or no helmet, some people need to be more courteous when riding.

More info:
http://www.whohelmets.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdoE2YCvwdM

While I was researching about helmets I came across this info.

Be careful if you’re driving in Australia! Non-compliance fines are steep.
Not wearing seat belts (driver and all human passengers) $500-900 fine
Using mobile phone while driving $250 fine
Speeding: <10km $75, <20km $150, <30 $300, 40 $1000 fine!
Driving through a red light $150
Driving through a stop sign $150
Driving through a yellow light $100
Failure to give way at a pedestrian crossing $200
http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/mediaFiles/lic_drivesafe7.pdf

There are speed cameras and red lights cameras all over Australia.
Do they have them here in Japan?

Philip

Requiring someone to wear a helmet is an absurd law. Even for children. The health benefits for riding a bicycle are 20 times higher than the dangers. There should be no law that discourages people to exercise.

Look at the statistics: there are less deaths and serious injuries of cyclists after the helmet law past in Aus, but that’s only because less people are riding bikes.

Bicycle helmets are fragile. They may prevent a minor injury gloves might prevent your hands to get scratched up when you fall off your bike. However, 90% of deaths of cyclists are automobile related. If you get hit by a speeding car, a foam helmet isn’t going do anything to save you.

http://bensescapefromny.blogspot.com Ben

My brother was hit head on by a truck and his helmet saved his life. Shut up dude.

Philip

I never said don’t wear a helmet. All I’m saying is a helmet law is ridiculous because it discourages people from exercise (riding a bike).

And how do you know the helmet saved his life? (A cracked helmet is meaningless. Your skull is much stronger than a foam helmet.)

Many more people claim that “a helmet saved my life” than actual deaths.

Helmet’s a designed for low speed falls. Not being slammed into a truck at 30kph.
Ikunochan

I’m particularly concerned about very young children wearing helmets, after seeing the way some irresponsible mothers go tearing through shoutengai with their 2-year-olds at their mercy in the kiddy seat behind them.

Mommy may miss the light pole she’s recklessly weaving around, but a child with a helmet on might be safer than one without when the drag causes the kid to get a nasty ding in the head.

green cop

Philip, thats not correct. Bicyle sale in Australia are at an all time high since WWII:
“Bicycle sales in Australia averaged
795,000 per year for the four years
1998 – 2001. In the four years since
they have averaged 1,133,000 per
year and been over one million in
each of those four years. By
comparison car sales have never
reached one million in a year.
From the ABS import figures for bikes
it can be shown that the market
share for adult bikes has grown
from around half of the market in
1998 to about two thirds in 2005.”

are you seriously suggesting people are spending hundreds of dollars on a bicycle and then are leaving it at home to rot because they won’t spend another $30-40 on a helmet?
A helmet won’t save you being crushed by a car, but they will save you in “car-door” incidents and “no-fault” falls (like skidding out on a wet manhole, which has happened to me). 97% of cyclists deaths from head injury are due to lack of a helmet.

Philip

It’s not the price of the helmet. Helmets are uncomfortable and bulky. Most people don’t even wear them properly making them practically useless. One of the greatest pleasures of riding a bicycle for me is feeling the wind going through my hair.

If one is forced to wear an uncomfortable bulky helmet, some people will stop riding or at least ride less than they would have. This has more far more health consequences than the danger of riding a bike.

“97% of cyclists deaths from head injury are due to lack of a helmet.”
Source please. This is complete bullshit. Even if 97% weren’t wearing helmets, I doubt they where all head injuries. And there’s no way to tell that a helmet would have prevented death.

90% of cyclists’ deaths involve automobiles. These types of accidents aren’t what bicycle helmets are made for.

Helmets prevent minor head injuries, but they rarely save lives (at least for road cyclists).

Only about 800 cyclists die per year in the US. There are plenty more things to worry about.
green cop

you still havent addressed the fact of rising bicycle ownership

bicycle injury statistics for australia:
http://www.cyclingresourcecentre.org.au/29/Statistics_Common_Crashes

worldwide:
http://www.bhsi.org/stats.htm

Governments have been quite negligent in not enforcing the helmet law if my anecdotal observations are anything to go by. Over the past 3 years as vintage style racing bikes and single-speeds have become fashionable, I see less and less young people wearing helmets. It would be interesting to know if there has been a spike in head injuries over that period.

And lets forget even a minor brain injury can significantly impact on life quality and future cycling ability. Thats why couriers and professional cyclists all wear helmets.
Philip

All I’m saying is if someone gets discouraged to go cycling because they have to wear a helmet, then it’s more harm than good.

I’m not saying helmets are bad–though I don’t like them–but helmet laws are bad.

The number of cyclists might be increasing now, but they still haven’t matched their peak in 1990 before the helmet law.

I still can’t find where it says this: “97% of cyclists deaths from head injury are due to lack of a helmet.”

If you’re paranoid, invest in a helmet. But do that after you get good lights (front and back), reflectors, a mirror, reflective clothing and educate yourself to anticipate car movement. Not getting hit by a car should be your first goal.
http://bicyclesafe.com/
Philip

“HEAD INJURIES AND BICYCLE HELMET LAWS
Robinson DL.
a peer-reviewed article published in Accident Analysis & Prevention 28(4):463-475, 1996 Jul.
Abstract: The first year of the mandatory bicycle helmet laws in Australia saw increased helmet wearing from 31% to 75% of cyclists in Victoria and from 31% of children and 26% of adults in New South Wales (NSW) to 76% and 85%. However, the two major surveys using matched before and after samples in Melbourne (Finch et al. 1993; Report No. 45, Monash Univ. Accident Research Centre) and throughout NSW (Smith and Milthorpe 1993; Roads and Traffic Authority) observed reductions in numbers of child cyclists 15 and 2.2 times greater than the increase in numbers of children wearing helmets. This suggests the greatest effect of the helmet law was not to encourage cyclists to wear helmets, but to discourage cycling. In contrast, despite increases to at least 75% helmet wearing, the proportion of head injuries in cyclists admitted or treated at hospital declined by an average of only 13%. The percentage of cyclists with head injuries after collisions with motor vehicles in Victoria declined by more, but the proportion of head injured pedestrians also declined; the two followed a very similar trend. These trends may have been caused by major road safety initiatives introduced at the same time as the helmet law and directed at both speeding and drink-driving. The initiatives seem to have been remarkably effective in reducing road trauma for all road users, perhaps affecting the proportions of victims suffering head injuries as well as total injuries. The benefits of cycling, even without a helmet, have been estimated to outweigh the hazards by a factor of 20 to 1 (Hillman 1993; Cycle helmets-the case for and against. Policy Studies Institute, London). Consequently, a helmet law, whose most notable effect was to reduce cycling, may have generated a net loss of health benefits to the nation. Despite the risk of dying from head injury per hour being similar for unhelmeted cyclists and motor vehicle occupants, cyclists alone have been required to wear head protection. Helmets for motor vehicle occupants are now being marketed and a mandatory helmet law for these road users has the potential to save 17 times as many people from death by head injury as a helmet law for cyclists without the adverse effects of discouraging a healthy and pollution free mode of transport. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd. [References: 59]”
http://web.aanet.com.au/d-e/VELO/aap_bh.html
green cop

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Record_number_of_bicycles_sold_in_Australia_in_2006

bicycle sales are up from under 800,000 in 1996 when these anti helmet studies were published to almost 1.3 million now. While helmet laws MAY have caused a temporary decline in cycling, many other factors may have as well. Perhaps the fear that if cycling “requires” a helmet it might be too dangerous for kids? Has anyone tracked the decline of cycling in that period with the explosive growth of gym membership?

To tell the truth I have been looking all afternoon and cant find my source for the 97% claim, but I have found plenty of other statistics claiming a 30-40% reduction in head injuries in australian cyclists. The main problem is government introduced a safety law and then ignored any effort to systematically and accurately trace the result of the law. This means we could be arguing till doomsday and bore the socks off the good readers of Japan Probe…which I won’t do.

However my last word is that I believe kids under 14 and especially very small kids are safer wearing helmets. Good luck to the Japanese in educating the public in proper helmet use and hopefully justifying their efforts with effective data collection.
PS
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25509892-601,00.html

Marcello

I would be interested to see if the “invincibility shield” effect would happen in Tokyo. I doubt it would make a difference, cyclists already ride like maniacs as it is.

Case in point. On my way home from the station tonight (8pm) I was riding up a hill that ends in a relatively busy T-intersection with a blind spot for oncoming traffic.

I was about 20 metres from the intersection and noticed a teenage schoolgirl pass me. “She’s in a hurry” I thought to myself.

5 seconds later I hear a screech… bang! “Oh!!! Daijyobu desuka? Daijyobu desuka?”

The girl rode out in front of a scooter, fortunately slowing down to stop at the red light after the intersection. The scooter managed to brake, but still hit the girl with quite a force, enough to make a pretty nasty “scooter on schoolgirl” thud. However, not enough to knock her off her bike (where a helmet would have come into play).

She managed to ride off in one piece, hopefully a little wiser, and with a story to tell her family and friends.

Now if it had have been a truck instead of a scooter, it could have been a different story.

Bicycle helmets for children in Japan

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