Keeping Kids’ Heads Off Collision Course : Eleven-year-old bicyclist shows why it’s cool to wear a helmet

Marcia White’s cracked bicycle helmet left her schoolmates at Isaac L. Sowers Middle School in Huntington Beach imagining in horror what might have been. They got plenty to think about when the sixth-grader returned to class wearing a smile the day after she collided with a car as she bicycled home from school.

Her helmet shattered the windshield and then broke on impact with the pavement. The 11-year-old was wearing the headgear in compliance with the state law, effective Jan. 1, that requires minors to wear state-approved helmets while cycling.

Marcia was one of the first in the state to realize the practical wisdom of the new law. And like hundreds of other students at Sowers, she was obeying a school district policy that went into effect at the same time.

This is one youngster whose own good sense was supported actively by parents and school authorities. That’s the kind of cooperation it takes to win over those children who think “it’s not cool” to wear a helmet. Moreover, the penalties for violating the new law aren’t likely to be much of an incentive, nor are busy police likely to enforce it heavily. In the first year, only warnings will be issued; warnings are to be followed in 1995 by fines of up to $25.

Clearly, the most persuasive case for the new law is made through experiences like Marcia’s. There no doubt are still many stragglers around Southern California, like the dozen or so of Marcia’s schoolmates who have been scolded by the principal for not wearing helmets. If these students were not persuaded by the new law--and their parents have not already been convinced by statistics showing bicycle-related accidents to be the No. 1 cause of death and brain injury among children between 5 and 14--then the sight of a healthy Marcia White returning to ride another day should be an inspiration.

The Legislature should hold hearings later this year to assess the effects of the requirement and whether the helmet standards, as they now stand, are adequate or require further toughening.