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Bicycle and Motorcycle Helmets

Motorcycles, Bicycles, and Head Injury

The increase in bicycling and motorcycling has focused attention on injuries sustained during these activities. Most of these injuries are traumatic brain injuries (TBI), caused by the lack of rider head protection. This exposure of the rider accounts for the particular types of injuries seen during these activities.

  • Although the crash scenario often dictates the area of the body injured, fatal crashes are most often a result of traumatic brain injury. Often these are isolated head injuries with no other serious injuries.

  • Fatal traumatic brain injury occurs more often in adults than children, although children are more often injured in bicycle crashes. This simply reflects the greater proportion of children using bicycles, as well as the lack of experience of younger riders.

  • Many studies have documented the particular risk of brain injury when riding a motorcycle. The increased speed of a motorcycle and use in vehicle traffic adds risk of injury far beyond that of a bicycle.

  • Traumatic brain injury certainly can cause death, but it also can cause disabling injury requiring extensive and costly rehabilitation. For many people, a brain injury triggers a significant change in lifestyle and function. Brain injury can vary from essentially minor disability to prolonged dependence on a ventilator to breathe and permanent loss of normal function. These serious brain injuries take their toll on families caring for an injured loved one.



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Bicycle and Motorcycle Helmets

Dementia in Head Injury Overview

Head injury occurs when an outside force hits the head hard enough to cause the brain to move violently within the skull. This force can cause shaking, twisting, bruising (contusion), or sudden change in the movement of the brain (concussion).

  • In some cases, the skull can break. If the skull is not broken, the injury is a closed head injury. If the skull is broken, the injury is an open head injury.

  • In either case, the violent jarring of the brain damages brain tissue and tears nerves, blood vessels, and membranes.

  • The severity of this damage depends on the location and force of the blow to the head.

Damaged brain tissue does not work normally.

  • The brain has many different functions in the body, and any of them can be disrupted by this damage.
  • Read the Dementia in Head Injury article »



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