Links
Summary: Helmet and bike safety links.
The sections below: - or you can just page down
- Helmet Information Sites
- Promotion Campaigns and Resources
- Injury Prevention Sites
- Head Injury Organizations
- Statistics
- Other Places of Interest
- Sites We Disagree With
- Manufacturers
- Helmet-related products and add-ons
- Others: Non-helmet links
1. Helmet Information Sites
If we are too serious for you, this is your site! Sponsored by an HMO in California, this site
is totally cool and absolutely graphic. You do need Shockwave to see their pages, but
everything moves and the advanced graphics are worth the visit. There is a whole 20-page comic
book there, for example. The HMO has developed a package of materials for schools and ties
their Web site into homework, with an interactive test for kids to take home to work on with
their parents that give instant feedback on correct responses when done on line. (You can see
the test without Shockwave, by using this
link.) This is a dynamite site!
WHO's effort to spread the word about helmets worldwide. This site is the closest thing to BHSI for motorcycle helmets in particular, and the only one we know of that has a world-wide helmet perspective.
You can research transportation-related journal articles on bicycle helmets (and other subjects) on the TRIS Search Page. TRIS has more than 400,000 books, journal articles, and technical reports on transportation research from the 1960's to the present. Put "bicycle and helmet" (without quotes) in the search window and it will return more than 145 references. The abstracts are sometimes disappointing, but the citations are very useful.
Snell's site has info on their standards and publications. They develop standards and test helmets to them in their own labs, issuing a certification if the helmet passes. They have a list up of Snell-certified helmets. They also have the first published reports from the Harborview research that Snell funded.
NOCSAE sets standards for helmets for football, lacrosse, baseball and softball batters. Their headear is all for multiple hits and usually provides for replacement of the interior at regular intervals. They use an "anthropomorphic" headform designed to respond to impact like a human head.
SEI's page has info on their safety equipment certification programs. Their helmet certification
program tests helmets to the ASTM standard and verifies the manufacturer's quality control
procedures. They include a list of certified helmets.
CPSC has a page up with information on their helmet standard, product recalls and hazards,
research, and the agency's current calendar of meetings. Here is the page with their listing of recalls including helmets. (We have a page of just their helmet recalls.) They have other material you can find by doing a search on "helmet" including a nice illustration of how a helmet should fit. You can also subscribe to their press release by email service and receive recall notifications.
A private for-profit source of copies of the bicycle helmet standards we discuss.
The famed consumer magazine has a Web site that is part free, part paid subscription. Their ">2006 helmet article is there for free. We have summaries of their helmet articles. They mentioned us in their Blog in 2007.
2. Helmet Promotion Campaigns and Resources
Train the Trainer Helmet Workshop
The Minnesota State Bicycle Advisory Committee in collaboration with Injury Prevention Specialists of the Minnesota Department of Health, and the Twin Cities Bicycling Club presents a ‘Train the Trainer’ Workshop on Bicycle Helmet Safety. The workshop teaches instructors how to run a class on selecting and fitting a helmet. Check the Web, or this page with the email they send out to publicize the workshop.
The Washington Area Bicyclist Association does safety education for nearby jurisdictions. WABA has resources for teaching on-street bicycle classes and rodeos, including a teacher guide and a train-the-trainers presentation that include layouts for training areas with diagrams and photos. There are materials for the program including lettters to parents in English and Spanish. There is a description of the WABA trailer that carries bikes and materials to the schools, including an inventory before and after the class. Lots of photos. Good stuff!
Safe Kids USA is a movement to prevent unintentional childhood injury. They have more than 300 state and local coalitions running community-based campaigns on child occupant protection, bicycle safety, residential fire detection, and scald burn prevention. They ran the most extensive and most effective helmet promotion campaign anyone has ever mounted in the US in 1989,and continue to have an active interest in helmets. Safe Kids provides inexpensive helmets to their chapters and to other non-profits through Bell, one of their sponsors. We have contact information for that on our page on inexpensive helmets. In addition, some of their local coalitions have helmet information up.
Ride Safe
Ride Safe was a for-profit program supplying helmets at very low cost for helmet promotion campaigns. Though they are out of business now, they have given us permission to post the fine series of instructions they had developed for running a bike rodeo.
Ride and Roll Safely, Inc.
(Formerly the Lexington Bicycle Safety Program) This now-defunct non-profit organized bicycle safety events, coordinated media campaigns promoting bicycle safety throughout Massachusetts, and produced a
variety of educational materials for national distribution. Among their more interesting products were kits for school assemblies. They also had lesson packages, a helmet for eggs for drop demos and videos. When we last heard from founder Olga Guttag in 2005, she was looking for someone to take over the program. You can contact her by sending email to olga@lcs.mit.edu or write to Ride and Roll, 273 Emerson Road, Lexington, MA 02173, USA.
DOT's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has a Web server up with materials for
teaching kids to ride safely, including a kids bike safety Web page. They also have pamphlets and materials available for campaigns, and classroom materials for teachers. Call Marietta Pearson at (202) 366-4969 or send her an email at mpearson@nhtsa.dot.gov
This a New Jersey helmet campaign funded by the state and put together by The Brain Injury Association of New Jersey. It is targeted to both children and adults, and includes radio and TV spots, a survey on helmet use, a coloring page, a place to report your crash story and lots more.
Safe Moves is a program based in Los Angeles. Here is a good program description.
This program is a partnership of Safe Kids Coalition of Maricopa County and Phoenix Children's Hospital.
Stanford University's program for bicycle safety.
California has a great injury prevention program.
This very useful page features the author's observations of the ten worst situations for cyclists getting hit by cars, and his suggestions for how to handle them. Includes clear illustrations of the bad situations.
This environmentally-oriented national campaign is a non-profit driven by teens. They
draw kids into a practical activity designed to improve some specific aspect of their
environment. For 1999-2000 they have chosen to promote bicycling as their concentration,
including safety as one area to consider. If they have an active program in your community
it may be a good way to hook up your helmet campaign to their age group.
Active Transportation has info on using your bicycle or walking for commuting and other utility trips.
The Safety Ape is the device for reaching kids developed by RODOG Productions of Pensacola,
Florida. They have various teaching materials based on a cartoon Safety Ape character, including
a song about bike safety.
We have not reviewed their materials yet.
Stakki Stikka is an Australian program using unique helmet stickers.
Neuro Mart has everything you can think of related to brains, from models to a gelatin mold to brain candy. Great for demos.
The Web site inspired by the traumatic injury of Harry Landymore, a six year old who crashed without a helmet and nearly died. The "long story" of Harry's crash and his parents' agony is memorable.
This site promotes the use of helmet in cars, particularly for children. We have no idea of what the effect of that would be, but the idea is interesting. It might be inspired by frustration with our inability to deal with the huge number of deaths on our highways.
3. Injury Prevention Sites
Home of the famous Thompson, Rivara and Thompson studies on helmet effectiveness. Summarizes
major studies of helmet effectiveness, with estimates of the protection helmets offer and more. Don't miss their page on helmet effectiveness, which charts the findings of a number of studies. Equally useful is their page on the effectiveness of helmet education interventions.
The Kiwanis theme is "Family Safety Day." The site has useful resources for bike safety promoters, including info on how to run a rodeo and a PowerPoint Presentation that is a great source of ideas or maybe just something you will want to use as is! Worth a look.
A national campaign to address all of the problems that discourage bicycling in the US. The Steering Committee is the National Bicycle Safety Network, a committee that meets periodically in Washington, DC, to coordinate bicycle safety promotion activities among members. The Strategies are sponsored primarily by NHTSA and by the members of the Network, including BHSI. If you wonder why you have never heard of it, the NBSN has been somewhat less than dynamic in pushing the program.
This project of the University of North Carolina is funded by the US Department of Transportation. It provides resources primarily to officials who serve as bicycle planners in localities all over the US, but the Web site has injury prevention info, research data, statistics and other resources available for all.
This Web site has access to many CDC documents on injury prevention, including helmets. For helmets the most interesting document is their Injury-Control Recommendations: Bicycle Helmets. (Also available in .pdf format.) We have one page of the Recommendations in our page on bicycle helmet laws, a compilation of evaluations done on helmet law effectiveness. CDC also has an interesting page on head injury and concussion. Since their resources move, we sometime use this search link.
This is a link to a 2003 study by P. L. Jacobsen titled "Safety in numbers: more walkers and bicyclists, safer walking and bicycling." The author examined statistics for many countries and found that the more cyclists and pedestrians there are on the streets, the safer they all are. And an article in Berkeley Traffic Safety Center newsletter in 2004 discussed their own study showing that pedestrians are safer, and the Jacobsen study as well. Riding in a place like the Netherlands or another location where there is lots of bike traffic will tell you that the thesis is correct, and these studies attempted to document it. Those who oppose helmet laws contend that the laws reduce cycling, thereby increasing the risk to each cyclist left on the streets. There is no evidence of that in the US.
ThinkFirst's mission is to "prevent brain and spinal cord injury through education aimed at healthy behaviours in children and youth."
A helmet page and more info on other Canadian safety issues.
This site traces its origins to support of the World Health Organization campaign, although Sweden's helmet promotion efforts began back in the 1970's well before WHO got interested. Sponsored by Karolinska Institute, the secretariat for this group coordinates activities of fifteen different health, injury prevention and municipal members.
BHIT of the UK is a non-profit helmet promotion organization focussed on increasing helmet use among under-16 riders in Britain. If you have the Flash plugin you can access their page here.
A motorcycle helmet campaign based in India.
An extensive collection of everything Australian that is bicycle safety related on the Web, with New Zealand info of course and international links as well. The site is maintained by the Australian Bicycle Council and is a repository for data, information and best practice relating to cycling planning, policy, programs and projects.
This site has some bike safety information, including a study on Adult Bicyclists in the U.S.: Characteristics and Riding Experience in 1996.
An impressive work put up by Hank Weiss as a catalog to all the injury prevention resources on the Internet. Links to government agencies, databases, education, journals, conferences and more on everything from poisonings, burns, firearms, and violence to head injury. Has research listings, opportunities, grants, email lists and more. Wow. If your link is slow you might want to turn off automatic graphics download, since this page is a whopper!
Sponsored by the Texas State Office for Prevention of Developmental Disabilities. A new site in August, 2003 that is developing.
Inspired by the death of a child in a faulty crib, KID seeks to alert the world about product defects. Since most recalls get a pitifully small portion of the product back, their effort makes sense and the site is a good resource.
Info on playground safety, including a newsletter, tips for parents and a section on playground surfaces.
4. Sources of Statistics
A good source of data on highway injuries and fatalities. We have some of their stuff up on our
statistics page.
Query the FARS Database
The FARS Database is the Fatality Analysis Reporting System put up by NHTSA - DOT. You can
construct your own query to generate data on fatalities (not lesser injuries, just fatalities) by year, by time of day, in your state or
by many other criteria. They have some Frequently Used Queries as examples.
A readable page with lots of statistics on how crashes occur and advice on how to avoid them. Some of the data collected in Boston may be applicable only to their unique traffic patterns.
5. Head Injury Organizations
Info on brain injury and resources for education program on brain injuries. Not much that is
helmet-specific, but their focus is our chief concern and they have some good info about brain
injuries and how to deal with them. They also have many state chapters, including probably one
in your state.
A State chapter of the Brain Injury Association of America, formed to help those who search for appropriate facilities and support to return loved ones who had sustained brain injuries to maximum functioning potential.
A website created by the mother of Heather Bublick to help her daughter and other Traumatic Brain Injury Survivors, as well as people who suffer from Brain Disorders. They distribute the Brainstorm awareness wristband.
A TBI Clubhouse is a supportive network of members and volunteers who participate in social, recreational and work-oriented programs for the purpose of using and developing practical and functional living skills. HansonHouse Traumatic Brain Injury Clubhouse will be the first and only program in Ohio based upon the true Clubhouse model of community re-entry for people with traumatic brain injury.
Maintained by Head Injury Hotline, described as a non-profit clearinghouse founded and operated by head injury survivors since 1985. The authors consider it a site to learn what the medical system is not telling you about head injury.
Info on brain injury concussion and strokes from Dr. Diane Roberts Stoler, who has herself recovered from a brain injury. We distributed copies of her book, Coping With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, to the members of the ASTM headgear committee. It supports our contention that sometimes brain injury is subtle, and may not even be diagnosed by a doctor, but still has serious quality of life effects and is painfully apparent to the victim's family. We think that bicycle helmet standards should be strengthened to require more protection from these milder forms of injury, not just the ones that are life-threatening.
A commercial site "helping families, survivors, clinicians, teachers, advocates and counselors recognize and respond to the special needs of children, adolescents and young adults with brain injuries, and other disabilities." They have books on understanding head injury and pamphlets on avoiding head trauma, as well as a survivor forum.
6. Other Interesting Places
Lists many national and international standards authorities. This page may be useful in finding other bike helmet standards.
Linda Tracy and John Williams have a unique Web server dedicated to bike program planners. It has
information on bicycle-friendly facilities, a growing and evolving online bicycle planning and
program guide, an extensive reference library and much more. This is not just a helmet site, but
a full-range site on the primary measures to reduce the bicycle crashes that make helmets
necessary. A highly recommended resource.
Delaware's bicycle advisory group has a page up about the state's helmet laws and more.
A brief description of a program at Stanford sparked by the hospital. From a beginning with
two percent helmet use they managed to distribute 2,500 helmets.
The League was founded in 1880 to promote the interests of bicyclists through a nationwide network of affiliated bicycling clubs and advocacy groups. (Our parent organization -- WABA--is a member, for example.) LAB has a bicycle safety program and runs a national training program in safe road riding techniques. It also sponsors rallies and other activities.
A commercial site for electric scooters with safety info for scooter users.
This Boston-area group has an innovative helmet rebate program for members, as well as lots of info on riding in their area.
Info on skating and skate safety issues, including equipment and helmets.
The Central Park Skate Patrol is a chapter of the International Inline Skating Association's National Skate Patrol. They provide free stopping lessons to skaters, as well as general assistance to all users of Central Park. They have some interesting stats on skating injuries.
OHSU's goal is to improve the health of all Oregonians. OHSU educates health professionals and biomedical researchers in a variety of fields, undertakes patient care, performs community service and performs biomedical research. They have info on fitting helmets.
This page is devoted to a contest for kids to produce poetry on brains and brain injury. Helmets included!
A charitable bike safety foundation which among other things donates helmets
to the needy.
A
local club in the Boston area with links to us and an innovative helmet rebate program for their members.
6. Sites We Disagree With
The most definitive site that promotes scepticism about the use of helmets, and about laws to require them. They find "serious flaws in the evidence most frequently cited in favour of helmet effectiveness. Moreover, it has become increasingly clear that real-world data, from independent sources and based on large populations where helmet use has become common, do not support these claims. Most disturbing of all, there are sources of evidence to suggest that increased helmet use has sometimes been associated with an increase in the number or severity of head injuries to cyclists.
All that is on their Policy Statement page. They have links to other like-minded sites.
This Australian site opposes helmet laws. Their presentation is reasonable and thorough, and they have a lot of stuff collected since their founding in 1992. There is a lot of information here to support the anti-helmet law viewpoint.
An annotated collection of links to info on the Web on "the Helmet Wars." We would have to list more of them if this page were not there to provide the URLs.
has a FAQ devoted to anti-helmet law views, including their judgments on helmets, rider psychology and a whole range of other issues.
The ECF is an umbrella organization for 25 Bicycle Advocacy Groups in Europe with some 250.000 members in 17 countries who say they represent 100.000.000 daily cyclists. Their conclusions: "Properly designed cycle helmets can avert some cycling deaths and injuries. The effect on safety is however secondary of nature and is often exaggerated. Cycle helmets make cycling less convenient and should, therefore, by no means be compulsory. Safety-campaigns should be directed towards primary safety - reducing the number of accidents by measures of infrastructure, equipment and education of cyclists and motorists - rather than secondary safety as for example promoting use of helmets."
The author believed that many bike safety advocates are exaggerating the risks of cycling, and marshaled many arguments supporting his thesis. Tragically, he was murdered on the road by a drunk driver in 2003, some years after we put this link up.
A New Zealand site that advocates repealing their helmet law. It repeats nearly all the arguments that anti-helmet people use.
Here is a motorcyclists' site with an anti-helmet law message.
7. Helmet Manufacturers
The trade association of bicycle helmet manufacturers. Members include Bell, Louis Garneau,
Specialized, Trek and Troxel, with associate member Polysource. PHMA has a video titled Professor Helmut on Helmets
that they send free to helmet campaign organizers.
Manufacturers of related products
Bicycle helmet stickers in graphic designs to add either reflectivity or florescent color to your helmet. We have examined a PET-shell helmet with their graphics on it for a year and found no evidence that the adhesive had damaged the shell. The reflectivity seemed decent to us but their florescent colors are not reflective.
has helmet covers in many shades and patterns. Some are made with reflective material. They can do covers for bike events.
An add-on to cover your ears for $20. The manufacturer claims they will reduce wind noise while not obstructing ordinary sound. In fact, if you hear the wind it will remind you that you forgot your helmet! Some great marketing for the hi-tech solution to a problem that someone somewhere must have. See also Slipstreamz below.
Strip lights you can attach to your helmet or bike. We have never seen one in the field and don't know if they would help or not. Our sample self-destructed in about 12 minutes of operating time. See our page on the ideal helmet for our cautionary ideas on attaching anything to the outside of your helmet.
You can attach a helmetcamera.com camera to your helmet and film for a safety video, or you can attach one to your helmet and bomb down a mountain. It's your call. Either way, you don't want that camera to catch on anything and jerk your neck. This product at least has a low profile and is attached with a breakaway mount.
Helmet Fresh
Has your helmet gone sour? This is a problem usually limited to motorcycle or BMX helmets with full liners. Bennett Engineering makes a product to eliminate helmet odor called Helmet Fresh. We have not used it, but were pleased to find that it has no masking fragrance, just a faintly medicinal or bleach odor. Cycle World said "After kneading the clear fluid into the liner, we left it to air dry. Once it had dried, the helmet didn't smell like new, or even like cheap perfume. In fact, it didn't smell at all." Other reviews on the Web support that. We can't find their Web page any more, but motorcycle stores and Web sites have it, including Bell (motorcycle) Helmets and Simpson. A four ounce spray bottle runs about $5. See also No Sweat Sports below.
Helmet Gear
Helmet Gear makes a large wrap-around visor, similar to a motorcycle face shield but covering only the upper face. We don't recommend using this type of visor. In general, the lower edge of that type of visor can cut the rider's face in a fall, or the visor can shatter and the shards can do serious damage. We do not know if the Helmet Gear product has either problem, because there is no visor test in any US bicycle helmet standard yet. So you are on your own to assess this one until we can get a test added to the ASTM and CPSC standards. For eye protection we recommend sunglasses, glasses or goggles that meet the ASTM impact standard for eyewear.
Helmetskinz
Lycra helmet covers, with cartoon characters like Dora The Explorer and Spongebob. The Company is King Cat Productions, of Canada.
Helmet covers, with reflective trim.
Helmet-mounted lights are often used for offroad riding at night. Jet Lites responded to a letter from us about snagging hazards by developing a mount that breaks away with a 5 lb force, and won't let that overhanging limb break your neck.
Lockjaw has a triangular flap that snaps under the chinbar of a full face helmet and helps to hold the helmet on in a crash. A simple and interesting idea that we have not seen evaluated yet.
MEDS makes a $3 system for adding personal medical identification to your helmet. It includes a decal for the outside to alert the EMS crew that it's there, and a flat orange plastic sleeve that you stick inside with a folded medical info sheet inside that you fill out. Don't lend your helmet to anyone. The helmet has to be removed to see the info inside, and instructions to first responders vary in different communities about whether or not to remove the helmet if neck trauma is suspected. Organizations can get the system for about a dollar each. MEDS' address is Medical Emergency Data Systems, 826 South Pike Road, Sarver, PA 16055, USA. Tel. (724) 295-1988, Fax (724) 295-4488. We favor neck chains, bracelets and wallet cards if you have medical conditions that an emergency medical tech would need to know about. In too many cases the helmet is removed by bystanders trying to make the cyclist comfortable.
Plum Enterprises makes protective headgear for anyone from babies to adults in need of head
protection around the house after head injury, surgery, during epileptic seizures, etc. These
are protective caps not designed for the heavy impacts seen in bicycling.
Sandmarc Industries makes the SandySack, a locking nylon bag that holds a helmet while the
rider is off the bike.
A folding ID card and case that you stick to the outside of your helmet. We of course do not like anything you add to the outside of a helmet, since it can interfere with sliding in a fall, and in this case we don't know if the adhesive used is compatible with all helmet shells. Since the ID is on the outside the helmet does not have to be removed by first responders to see the info. Don't lend your helmet to anyone with your medical info still stuck on it. We favor neck chains, bracelets and wallet cards if you have medical conditions that an emergency medical tech would need to know about. In too many cases the helmet is removed by bystanders trying to make the cyclist comfortable.
An interesting accessory to add to a hard shell helmet that registers g's above a certain level by turning a spot red. We took some samples to an ASTM helmet standards committee meeting and got mixed feebackve feedback from the assembled experts. Some felt that even assuming it functioned correctly, the spot might not change in some crashes that would damage the helmet. Most believe that visual inspection and measuring for foam crush after a crash is the best way to determine if a helmet has been damaged. But since many consumers are not experienced in looking at damaged helmets and may not recognize damage under a shell, there is probably still a place for this product if you wear a stiff hard shell helmet. Our samples were $25 plus shipping, from a supplier we found with Google.
This South African company has ear covers that attach to helmet straps. They can be used for protecting ears against wind, but they can also be used to mount ear buds to listen to music or whatever. That can be a dangerous way to ride, since it deprives the rider of essential feedback about vehicles approaching from the rear. Slipstreamz says their product places the earbud outside the ear canal and retains some ambient feedback, but we do not recommend using it that way. As a wind protector it compares to the Buschman Technologies product above.
Streetglo has reflective stickers and vinyl decals in at least nine colors and a large variety of designs, mostly intended for motorcycle helmets. The larger ones cover a full helmet. Some of their reflective materials come from 3m. Others come from Nippon Carbide Industries (USA), who certify that the material will not damage motorcycle helmet shells made of PET, Lexan and other plastics. They have now added bicycle kits, and their Web page has some good photos of the results. That much material tends to be expensive.
Tail Wags makes colorful and creative covers for kids' helmets. They have ears, tails, horns and other projections adding to the originality and probably detracting from the helmet's ability to slide on a hard surface in a crash. We don't recommend them for that reason.
More Links: other pages who are related to helmets and bike safety but not helmet-specific.
This page was last revised on: May 2, 2008
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