Wearing bicycle helmet reduces the risk of serious head injury by 60 percent

Figures from Vias show that 42 percent of the seriously injured cyclists suffered a serious head injury. Every year, an average of 546 cyclists end up in the hospital.

However, a behavioral measurement from 2022 shows that Belgians barely wear a bicycle helmet (29 percent). That while a helmet reduces the chance of a serious head injury by 60 percent.

Only 17 percent wore a helmet in Flanders. That is considerably less than in Wallonia (46 percent) and Brussels (54 percent). The helmet service is higher with cycling tourists and users of cargo bikes.

Read too. Tips to buy a bicycle helmet: what should you pay attention to and what are the big differences?

The second edition of the Day of the Fietshelm will not get the slogan ‘Don’t break your head, wear a bicycle helmet’. The campaign includes a campaign video with socially incapable Michiel and about thirty activities throughout Flanders.

Flemish Minister for Mobility Annick de Ridder, who supports the campaign financially, insists on the need for sensitization. However, she does not want to know about a helmet obligation. According to her, that is « a step too far, because such an obligation can also encourage people not to choose the bike ».

The day of the bicycle helmet is an initiative of the brain injury League and is supported by Vias Institute and the Belgian associations of neurosurgeons (BSN), neurologists (BVN-BN), emergency doctors (BEPE), pediatricians (BPA) and rehabilitation doctors (KBVFGR-SRBMPR).