No brainer

Bicycle safety instructor Martin Clinton tells his students: “There are no bike accidents, only crashes.” He explains the distinction.

“If you’re riding in the country and a rock rolls down the hill and hits you in the shoulder and you fall over, that’s an accident. If you hit the rock in the road, that’s a crash.

“A crash is avoidable. Somebody made a mistake, either you or the other person.”

In considering the risks of getting on a bicycle, most people worry about motor vehicles, said Clinton, who teaches monthly classes through the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition. And certainly that’s valid, as evidenced by the occasional and grisly news accounts of cars versus bikes.

California Highway Patrol officer Jonathan Sloat advises cyclists, “Make defensive riding the rule. Assume no one sees you.”

But Clinton also urges cyclists to think “about how well they are riding. Maybe they’re not paying attention to the road surface or going too fast or they don’t change the gear at the right time.”

If you concentrate on how you’re riding, you’ll be less apt to get hurt, he said.

And oh yes, don’t forget to wear your helmet — which for veteran cyclists, traffic officers and doctors is, to make the obvious pun, a no-brainer.

A 1994 California law requires that helmets be worn by people under age 18 when riding a bicycle, scooter or skateboard. But if you’re 18 or older, you can pedal off and let the wind blow in your hair. And in Sonoma County, widely known as a bicyclist’s paradise, you often see more hair than helmets.

“The disturbing thing is seeing parents riding with their children (in helmets) and parents not using a helmet,” said Officer Sloat.

Not only does this send the message to kids that helmets are a restriction and something they can give up when they get older, it ignores the proof that “helmets absolutely save lives,” said Sloat. “Wearing a helmet can reduce your risk of serious head injury by 85 percent.”

Healdsburg District Hospital emergency room physician Walt Maack, who bikes to work, puts it more bluntly: “It’s really stupid to ride a bike without a helmet. If you fall off your bike and break a bone, we can fix that. But a brain injury is usually permanent.”

The hope is that young riders will grow up with helmets being as routine as a seat belt.

Santa Rosa police officer Rafael Rivero is looking for “a generation accustomed to wearing a helmet every time they get on a bicycle. Then we wouldn’t have to be seeing kids in the ER with cracked heads.”

In an observational survey taken at schools and parks last fall, the Santa Rosa Police Department determined that 69 percent of cyclists under 18 wear helmets. They’re trying to boost that up to 100 percent through a Ride Safe, Walk Smart safety program, which has officers going to schools with safe biking messages and putting on bicycle skills rodeos like one earlier this month where 98 free helmets were fitted on young cyclists.

The fine for failing to wear a helmet in California is $25, but Rivero said rather than cite a kid most officers prefer to turn the offense into an educational opportunity. The child and his parents are invited to the police station for a 20-minute talk on bike safety and offered a free helmet.

Recreational cyclists need helmets in order to join a club event, said Clinton, who rides with the Santa Rosa Cycling Club. Because of insurance requirements the rule is, if you don’t have a helmet you don’t get to ride.

Professional bike racing also requires helmets, which has helped lessen the dork factor. Rivero often takes along photos of the handsome and helmeted Lance Armstrong to schools.

Clinton still hears vanity complaints about helmets wrecking hairdos, which he thinks is akin to saying “seatbelts put a crease in your clothes.”

He also hears an argument from cyclists who think helmets are bad PR for the sport. “They believe if you wear a helmet, you are admitting that bicycling is dangerous.”

Certainly today’s helmets are not as clumsy looking as earlier models, which had people complaining they “looked like some kind of spaceman,” said Brandon Boswell at the Bike Peddler store in Santa Rosa.

Today’s models, he said, are more comfortable, more durable and have more ventilation. They also come in every color from camouflage to pink paisley to ones with reflective stripes in safety orange. One model, by Giro, has the words “I love my brain” stenciled on the back.

Some people would like to see helmets be the law for all riders.

Sue Hultberg, executive director of the national Brain Injury Network, which is based in Santa Rosa, knows a number of people permanently injured from old bicycle mishaps. She thinks a federal helmet law “would be a darned good idea for anyone who rides a bike,” including the parents who are “very worried about their children’s brains but seem to think nothing will happen to them because they’re adults.”

Officer Sloat thinks mandatory safety laws for bicycles would be tougher to pass than those for motorized vehicles because “with a car you need a driver’s license, which allows you to tag on certain requirements that come with that license.”

There are no helmet laws for other sports that can cause serious head injuries, like skiing or horseback-riding, although the recent death of actress Natasha Richardson, who fell and hit her head during a beginner’s ski lesson, has revived debate on helmets being mandatory for snowboarders and downhill skiers. And many equestrian outfitters require helmets on children and encourage them for riders 18 and over.

Maack said a helmet is not going to make you invincible.

“If you get hit by a car going 50 mph it doesn’t matter what you’re wearing,” he said.

But he would support a bicycle helmet law for riders of any age, because most people, unless they are in a field like his, don’t see the results of going without.

“You could just go over your handlebars, bang the road and die.”

Many longtime cyclists have experienced what it takes to be convinced.

Clinton has mangled two helmets, once when he rounded a corner on a country road and a deer stepped in front of him. Clinton somersaulted over the deer’s back and landed on his head.

“The bike was badly damaged, the deer picked herself up and ran off and I was bruised but nothing broken. My helmet was broken in two.”

Then there’s Hunt Moore, who was taking a lunch time ride on Sonoma Mountain Road and was suddenly down, literally not knowing what hit him. The good samaritan who took Moore to the hospital suspected Moore’s bike was struck by a van that kept going. The bike suffered little damage and Moore’s MRI checked out, but his helmet was caved in on the right side.

He’s kept it, “to remind myself why I’m still alive and well.”

Susan Swartz is a freelance writer and author based in Sonoma County. Contact her at susan@juicytomatoes.com.