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Editorial: Approving helmet law should be a no-brainer
The Spokane County Commission appears on the verge of adopting a helmet law for bicyclists, and users of scooters, skateboards and roller skates and blades may also be included. The city of Spokane enacted one in 2004. Spokane Valley rejected one the following year.
Would a law increase the usage and cut down on head injuries? That’s been the experience in the city of Spokane, and that’s reason enough to adopt the law.
If the Spokane Valley debate is any indicator, opposition will arise from those who object to losing the freedom to choose. The concrete benefits don’t matter. This is similar to the debates over seat-belt laws and public cigarette smoking. To the philosophically minded, no amount of benefits can replace lost freedoms. To the pragmatically minded, we can’t afford to be philosophical. We do not exist in our own personal silos that block us from the consequences of others’ ill-considered decisions.
Police officers, firefighters, medical trauma personnel and public health officials see the problem up close. That’s why public safety workers give away helmets, reward children who wear them and run educational programs. As they see it, a simple fall should not be a devastating event.
As a firefighter once said during a bicycle safety campaign, “I have been to so many ‘nothing’ accidents where heads have hit the asphalt.”
If avoiding those tragedies isn’t reason enough, then there are the societal costs. As with seat-belt laws, the benefits accrue to everyone. Marion Lee of the Spokane Regional Health District explained the public burden of head injuries and deaths in “wheel sport” accidents to county commissioners on Tuesday.
In 2007, emergency rooms saw 61 skull fractures and concussions related to wheel sports. Those yielded $451,400 in hospital bills. Lifetime care of a brain-injured child runs into the millions of dollars. The cost of educating one is three to four times higher.
County Commissioner Todd Mielke wonders whether such a law can be routinely enforced. Probably not, given how stretched law enforcement agencies are these days. But the very existence of the law should continue the upward trend in usage. Parents would have one more arrow in their quiver to get their children to comply. Children would have another reason to prod their parents into wearing helmets.
A generation or more ago, helmet and seat-belt use was low. Nostalgia may move some to pine for this simpler time, but common sense says that the number of tragedies averted has been worth it.
Just ask those we can still ask because they took safety seriously.