Top Stories - Posted by Dennis O'Shea-JHU on Wednesday, February 9, 2011 13:05 - 10 Comments 
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(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Myth busted: Helmets do save spines
Opponents of mandatory helmet laws argue that wearing a helmet can increase a motorcyclist's risk of cervical spine injuries. New evidence rebuts that claim. (Credit: iStockphoto)
JOHNS HOPKINS (US) — Wearing a motorcycle helmet reduces the chance of cervical spine injury, new research shows, countering claims that helmets pose a risk to riders in a crash.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
“We are debunking a popular myth that wearing a helmet while riding a motorcycle can be detrimental during a motorcycle crash,” says study leader Adil Haider, assistant professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins University.
The new study, Haider says, offers the strongest evidence yet that helmets significantly reduce cervical spine injury, which can result in paralysis.
“Using this new evidence, legislators should revisit the need for mandatory helmet laws,” Haider says. “There is no doubt that helmets save lives and reduce head injury. And now we know they are also associated with a decreased risk of cervical spine injury.”
For more than two decades, the researchers say, activists lobbying against universal helmet laws have cited a small study suggesting that, in the event of a crash, the weight of a helmet could cause significant torque on the neck that would be devastating to the spine.
But the new study, published online in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, shows that riders with helmets were 22 percent less likely to suffer cervical spine injury than those without them. The researchers mined the National Trauma Databank, looking through information on more than 40,000 motorcycle collisions between 2002 and 2006.
Even with what researchers say are mountains of evidence that helmets reduce mortality and traumatic brain injury after a collision, many states, including Florida, Pennsylvania and Texas, have over the past 15 years repealed mandatory helmet use laws after lobbying from motorcycle riders, Haider says.
Anti-helmet law advocates often cite a 25-year-old study that found more spine injuries in helmet wearers. That study has been criticized by many, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, for flawed statistical reasoning.
“Additionally, helmet technology has significantly improved since that time; now helmets are much lighter but even sturdier and more protective,” Haider says.
Forty years ago, Haider says, nearly all states required helmets for motorcyclists of any age. Today, helmets are mandatory for all riders in only 20 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.
Motorcycle use has risen sharply over the past 10 years in the United States. Since 1997, motorcycle injuries in the United States have increased by roughly 5,000 per year and motorcycle fatalities have nearly doubled, according to the new journal article.
Haider’s study, like many others before, found a reduction in risk of traumatic brain injury in helmet wearers (65 percent) and decreased odds of death (37 percent).
More news from Johns Hopkins: http://releases.jhu.edu
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10 Comments
Dave Fisher
If we are going to enact legisilation directed at people’s ability to decide for themselves what is best then we have a much bigger issue to deal with. Smoking, drinking, excessive eating, fatty diets, etc. are all show to cause harm or the potential for harm to humans. When I see a fat person denighed the Twinkies in their shopping cart and smoking outlawed, then I will believe in the argument “if it saves one life it will be worth it.” Until then lets focus on items with a greater impact than a small sub-set of society that thinks freedom is more important than a low risk lifestyle.
Fail
As a rider, i would say that anyone who doesn’t wear a helmet, will quickly find out how the human head can explode like a watermelon upon impact with a car/road/pole/hard object. Too cool to wear a helmet? Darwin will be proven correct once again. – Live long, ride hard.
An act to prevent further damage to the drivers is the mandatory use of seat belts, therefore, for drivers of motorcycles that are lightweight transport, high sail and no means of security, the minimum that a state is passed mandatory helmet use for users. Abundantly demonstrated in studies worldwide that use the same save lives or prevent serious injury (all depends on the speed and against which impacts) at the cervical spine!
Dave Fisher
Just to clarify – I am not questioning the value of helmets. I agree they save lives. My comment is directed at the logic we use to enact legislation for one group yet contradict that same logic for a simmilar group. More people die on our highways than in the Iraq/Afganistan war. We have a staggering level of obesity that leads to diabetes and heart disease, smoking is the only legal product that when used as directed will kill you, and there are plenty of other things that kill us too. We focus on a statistically smaller segment to taget with legislation for their own benefit yet leave the larger community alone. Doesn’t seem like we have our priorities straight, or is it just the amount of money at stake if we outlaw poor diets and smoking?
John Weir
I’m all for personal freedom when someone else’s conduct doesn’t affect me, but I don’t like having to pay auto and nike insurance rates designed to cover people who won’t take reasonable precautions to reduce the costs of accidents. Sadly, many people who are in bike accidents that involve head trauma don’t pay for insurance after the accident, because they don’t ride again!
emc2
making motorcyclists wear a helmet is feasible. outlawing poor diets and smoking is not. let’s use simple solutions (that are not abhorrent) when possible.
Pete
Greetings from downunder. Here in Victoria it is manditory to wear an approved helmet whenever riding a motorcycle. This has been the case since 1 January 1961, claimed to be the first such law in the world. Any helmet worn must meet the Australian Standard (one of the most stringent in the world) but oddly enough an approved helmet is the only piece of safety equipment or clothing a motorcyclist is required to wear. It is a common sight on warm summer days to see riders wearing their approved helmet, along with t shirts, shorts and thongs. All perfectly legal. It is hard to imagine the thinking behind the helmet requirement but nothing else.
An interesting point is made about other vices (I would consider riding without a helmet to be a vice)such as overeating, smoking, sedentary lifestyles, etc. While laws cannot be easily written and enacted to keep us from partaking in these bad habits (and most would argue that the government should never have that level of control), there are currently efforts in place initiated by the insurance companies to encourage and reward healthy behavior within the workplace. When a workforce within a participating company successfully reduces the number of smokers, increases the incidence of walking and exercising, and helps employees shed excess pounds, then everyone is rewarded with lower health insurance contributions. When it comes to changing behavior, more must be done to encourage motorcyclists to make helmets a regular part of the riding routine, along with proper riding gear. Rewarding those who wear a helmet with a lower rate is a great start (just like having a car with ABS and air bags results in a discount). Helping to make helmets and riding gear acceptable in riding circles — making it socially “okay” to wear protective gear — is also a big part of this since there are distinct social pressures in the motorcycling community to maintain a certain image of toughness. I am delighted that we are beginning to see more and more riders on large cruisers/domestic baggers now wearing not only full face helmets but also opting to wear armored, hi-viz jackets and pants. I never thought I’d see the day (of course, I never thought I’d see the day when rodeo cowboys wore helmets and flack jackets either, but I think nothing less of their courage to climb upon an angry bull). The more the positive example of is set by each of us, the more success we will have in influencing the adoption of helmet use by others. ATGATT!
paul michelin
If you have ever seen a helmet after an accident (as unfortunately I have on more than one occasion) it is not be a contest to even think about not wearing one. The damage to the helmet would be your face and head and only the Lord knows whatever else. Anything other than a Full Face helmet in unacceptable. Just watch hockey (the greatest sport)!
Don’t even think about it. Helmet and ATGAT saves lives – not loud pipes!!!
One way to get people to wear helmets is to offer lower insurance costs to anyone wearing a helmet in a crash. Insurance companies could also have a clause in the insurance contract that those without helmets have to pay any incidental costs such as injury to other people out of their own pocket. They would also have to show sufficient funds to cover these costs before the insurance was issued.