Helmet Law Makes Headway With Young Bike Riders

Five times a week, 14-year-old Armando Enriquez rides a bike from his intermediate school in Oxnard with a black helmet dangling uselessly from the handlebars.

And five times a week, Armando waits until he is one block away from school before he dares to strap on his protective headgear.

“The other kids will make fun of me, so I wait to put it on,” he said.

About three months have passed since a state law requiring child bicycle riders to wear helmets went into effect, and police and school administrators say many young riders are complying, albeit reluctantly.

“Most of the kids I see are wearing the helmets,” said Simi Valley Police Lt. Tony Harper. “And most of the parents are being responsible in purchasing the helmets.”

The law applies to bicycle riders under age 18, and violators will receive only warnings from police during a one-year grace period. But beginning in 1995, those cited will be subject to fines of up to $25 per offense.

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Police and Ventura County sheriff’s deputies say they have not given many warnings so far.

“The majority of the kids are complying,” said Ventura Police Sgt. George Morris. “If they’re not wearing a helmet, you just pull up next to a kid, have a little conversation and try to reinforce the importance of compliance.”

At Los Cerritos Intermediate School in Thousand Oaks, Principal JoAnn Yoos said she has seen fewer bare-headed riders since January. The holdouts are not donning helmets because they know they won’t receive citations yet, she said.

“Once those tickets get issued, you would get a lot more compliance,” Yoos said.

Teen-agers are very self-conscious of their looks and image, Yoos said, and many resist wearing helmets because they’re afraid they’ll look nerdy.

“I tell them, ‘You’re not being a geek, you’re being smart,’ ” Yoos said.

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Stephanie Jucker, 12, of Oxnard, said she feels self-conscious when she wears her helmet.

“I hear all those people say, ‘Ooh, she’s a geek,’ ” Stephanie said. “It’s embarrassing, so sometimes I don’t wear a helmet.”

Advocates of the law say helmets will save lives and millions of dollars in medical bills. They say nearly 18,000 children were admitted to California emergency rooms in 1991 for bicycle-related head injuries. State figures indicate that 138 people died in hospitals that year from bike-related injuries, more than half of them children.

Dr. Nat Baumer, who heads the emergency room at Ventura County Medical Center, is enthusiastic about the measure.

“We’ve seen dramatic instances of people coming in with their helmets severely traumatized,” Baumer said. “The helmets are markedly deformed, and the patients have not had head injuries. They have broken arms, and broken clavicles, but no major head injuries.”

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Bicycle-shop owners are also happy with the law and report higher sales of children’s bicycle helmets.

Raul Yepez, owner of the Bicycle Clinic in Oxnard, estimates that his sales of bike helmets for children have increased about 20% since January. Sales of adult bike helmets have increased 5%, he said.

Many of the children are reluctant to wear helmets, but their parents force them, he said.

“They don’t like it because of the appearance,” Yepez said.

Port Hueneme Police Sgt. Ted Snyder said most of the riders who wear helmets tend to be children in elementary school.

“I think the biggest problem we’ll have is the teen-age group,” Snyder said.

David Jurado, 14, of Oxnard, said he has two helmets at home but conveniently “forgets” wearing a helmet because he doesn’t think it’s good for his image.

“My dad wants me to wear it because he’s a cop, but it messes up my hair,” he said.