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| When a rider is thrown from teh cycle, his head hits an object, such as the ground, the head's forward motion is stopped, but the brain, having its own mass, continues to move forward until it strikes the inside of the skull. It then rebounds, striking the opposite side. This type of injury can result in anything from a minor head injury,such as concussion, to a fatal head injury. (Graphic: WHO) | |
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, August 28, 2006 - First it was buckle up, now it's batten down as the World Health Organisation (WHO) moves to reduce the number of deaths and disabilities as a result of motorcycle accidents.
The organisation has launched a campaign encouraging its member states to promote the mandatory use of helmets. It said that injuries to the head and neck are the main cause of death, severe injury and disability among users of motorcycles and bicycles. In European countries, head injuries contribute to around 75 per cent of deaths among motorized two-wheeler users; in some low-income and middle-income countries head injuries are estimated to account for up to 88 per cent of such fatalities.
The social costs of head injuries for survivors, their families and communities are high, in part because they frequently require specialized or long term care. Head injuries also result in much higher medical costs than any other type of injury, such that these injuries exert a high toll on a country's
health care costs and its economy, said the WHO.
"We want to make helmet use a high priority for national public health systems," says Dr. Anders Nordström, Acting Director-General of WHO. "We need to stress not only the effectiveness of helmets in saving lives, but the fact that helmet programmes are good value for money. Countries will recoup their investment in these programmes many times over through savings to their health care systems, as well as savings to other sectors."
According to the WHO, wearing a helmet has been shown to decrease the risk and severity of injuries among motorcyclists by about 70 per cent, the likelihood of death by almost 40 per cent, and to substantially reduce the costs of health care associated with such crashes.
Few Caribbean countries have mandatory laws for wearing helmets.
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