Doctors at Children’s Hospital are urging people to wear helmets when riding two-wheeled vehicles

In order to reduce the severity of possible injuries, the doctors of the Children’s Clinical University Hospital (BKUS) urge both children and adults to wear helmets when traveling with two-wheeled vehicles.

Specialists of the hospital have observed – as soon as the weather gets warmer, the number of road traffic accidents involving children and teenagers who travel with micromobility devices – bicycles, electric scooters and others – increases rapidly.

BKUS data show that the number of injuries sustained while riding a bicycle increased the most in the previous year. If in 2022 there were almost 500 injuries due to which cyclists were brought to the hospital, then in 2023 – 700. Similarly, the number of injuries sustained while riding scooters and motorcycles has also increased by approximately 30%. The number of injuries related to electric scooters has remained unchanged – almost 100 cases in the last two years.

BKUS head physician Renāte Snipe calls on parents who leave home on two wheels to always put on helmets for both themselves and their children, as this is the only way to get children used to using this protective device from an early age. She reminds us that children imitate us and believe that their parents know what they are doing.

“Unfortunately, last year we also had to participate in such discussions where the opponents of the use of helmets asked how many children in Latvia have been injured or died precisely because they did not wear helmets while driving with micromobility tools. Do many tragedies really have to happen in order to change the rules on issues which doctors no longer discuss, because there are many international publications with data-based evidence that the use of helmets significantly reduces the risks of severe head injuries,” emphasizes the doctor.

BKUS reminds that everyone who participates in road traffic needs a bicycle or other vehicle driver’s license. Bicycles may be used in road traffic from the age of 10, with a registered electric scooter – from the age of 14. In addition, changes to the Road Traffic Regulations will come into effect from April 1, which stipulates that the use of a helmet is mandatory for all cyclists up to and including the age of 16, and for drivers of electric scooters – up to and including the age of 17.

Jānis Upenieks, pediatric trauma, orthopedics and spine surgeon at BKUS, president of the Association of Latvian Pediatric Surgeons, states that in various situations, in traffic accidents and falls, a helmet reduces the risk of severe head injuries. Also, if you fall face down from a bicycle or e-scooter, the rim of the helmet absorbs the impact first, reducing its force.

“Every day, at the trauma center of the hospital’s Emergency Medicine Center, we see that when children fall from a bicycle, they often get injuries to the legs, chest and abdominal organs. However, there are also head injuries with serious consequences. When riding an electric scooter, head, face and hand injuries are the most common. It is difficult to imagine how it would be possible to achieve that all children ride with micromobility tools, using arm and leg protectors, but there should be consistency in the use of a helmet in the family, because everyone has only one head,” emphasizes the doctor.

Every summer, many injured children are forced to spend shorter or longer periods of time in the hospital and then go through a rehabilitation course. One summer is lost even if the consequences are not permanent, but there are also injuries that cause health problems that persist for a long time, emphasizes BKUS.

The warm weather promised during the holidays makes us happy, but at the same time, it makes BKUS doctors worried, because trampolines are installed in the yards, swings are put up, grills are fired up and it is easy to lose alertness in the spring sun.