County Issue Should Bicyclists Under 18 Be Required to Wear Helmets?

The Legislature recently passed a bill that would make it illegal for bicyclists under the age of 18 to ride without helmets. Is the law, which Gov. Pete Wilson has not yet signed, an

appropriate way to increase biking safety, or will it overburden law enforcement agencies charged with upholding the new restrictions?

* Lindsay P. Miller

Simi Valley Police Chief I think it has the potential for helping people avoid head injuries, I also think it would be important for adults (to wear helmets) at some point in the near future. It’s my opinion that both adults and juveniles violate the rules of the road on a regular basis while riding bicycles. I have observed them failing to stop for red lights; they drive on the wrong side of the street; they fail in some cases to yield the right of way properly, and many bicyclists seem to ignore the law altogether. It would seem that, because of such behavior, it would be prudent for them to wear helmets because they run the risk of injury when they fail to obey the law, and the hazards still exist even when they do obey the law. Obviously, from the aspect of enforcement, it’ll undoubtedly subject us to criticism if we do not enforce the law and I suspect we’ll be subject to criticism even if we do, because there will be the perception that we’re picking on the kids. Obviously, we will enforce the law, because that’s our job.”

* Nick Akl

12-year-old Simi Valley resident Well, I think it’ll be a hassle and it might be safe at the same time. Because kids don’t want to be wearing their helmets, but it might be good because it could save their lives. Kids don’t want people to see them wearing their helmets on their bikes, they might say that they’re too overprotected or a nerd. If I was riding my bike to school, I probably wouldn’t wear a helmet. First of all I ride on the sidewalk, and if you watch out where you’re going and if you follow the rules with the hand signals, you don’t get hit. Last year we had some people come into our schools and tell us about bicycle safety and that’s when I wanted to get a helmet, but I didn’t want to spend all my money on a helmet, and it wasn’t that important to me. But if there was a law, I think I would wear it because I might get caught by the police, they might write me up and give me a ticket. My friends, none of them wear a helmet and one of them rides his bike to school and he doesn’t wear one either. If there was a law, I think he would buy one.”

* Nao Takasugi

Assemblyman When that bill came up for a vote on the floor I think I voted no on that. First of all, I think--on a volunteer basis--many of the families are seeing the importance of having their kids wear helmets when they get out on their bikes, especially on widely traveled public streets. Secondly, it’s another item that local peace officers need to enforce and, to my way of thinking, this is another way that government is coming into our lives on a daily basis and mandating from Sacramento that you shall do this or you shall not do that. I think this should be done as a voluntary program and not a mandatory program. If this is so important for government to impose such a requirement on kids 18 and under, why didn’t they make it mandatory for all bike riders to wear helmets when they get out on their bikes? Why just restrict it to kids? Philosophically, I think this should be something that is carried out voluntarily by the family and not in response to a forced regulation on our lives.”

* Lois Manning

Children’s medical services manager for Ventura County Public Health Yes, it’s a good idea because in our program--we take care of children from birth to 21 years of age--we see children who are involved in bicycle accidents who have serious head injuries. It costs our taxpayers an average, probably, of $50,000 to rehabilitate each of these children if they’re seriously injured and our program provides physical therapy, occupational therapy and long-term rehabilitation for these children. So we’re really into prevention if we can prevent it. I agree it’s a problem to enforce it, but I think the key is to educate the parents, children and the community. Within public health, we have educators who attend to injury prevention education in our community, and these resources should be more widely used to educate within the school system and in the community. We need more of a buy-in from the teens. They think that wearing helmets is not a cool idea and that’s where we use our health educators. They are very talented at making it trendy to do things like wearing helmets.”

* Jack O’Connell

Assemblyman I voted for this one. It’ll save money, it’ll save lives and you won’t see as many serious head injuries. I’m the author of the current law. The current law is, if you are less than 4 years old or less than 40 pounds you are required to wear a helmet. We passed that one back about 1985, and Gov. Deukmejian signed it. That was patterned after the child-restraint seats. We used the same criteria, if you were 4 years old or 40 pounds or less you had to be restrained in a child-restraint seat and we thought, ‘Why should infants be less safe on bicycles than in an automobile.’ This (proposed law) was an easy bill for me to support. There will be a definite cost savings to the state, it’ll save lives and it’s good public safety policy. Tissue is more fragile (and) softer, and there’s greater potential for serious head injury in young children, and saving lives transcends the concerns that have been raised by the opposition.”