The following statement was originally developed by the Subcommittee on Injury Prevention and Control of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Committee on Trauma and published in the February 2001 issue of the Bulletin. The ACS Board of Regents approved this updated statement at its February 2015 meeting.
Total care of the trauma patient includes endorsement of measures designed to prevent or reduce injuries. Regarding the use of motorcycle helmets, the ACS recognizes the following:
- Helmets reduce the risk of death and head injury in motorcycle riders who crash.
- It is estimated that between 1982 and 2001, more than 12,000 motorcyclists lost their lives as a result of not using a helmet.
- Unhelmeted motorcyclists are 40 percent more likely than a helmeted rider to sustain a fatal head injury and 15 percent more likely to suffer a non-fatal injury.
- Helmeted motorcycle riders have up to an 85 percent reduced incidence of serious, severe, and critical brain injuries compared with unhelmeted riders.
- Motorcyclists with a brain injury incur average inpatient health care costs that are more than twice the costs incurred by hospitalized motorcyclists without a brain injury.
- A large portion of the economic burden of motorcycle crashes is borne by the public.
- When universal helmet use laws are enacted, helmet use increases to nearly 100 percent, and fatalities and serious injuries decrease.
- When universal helmet use laws are repealed, helmet use decreases and fatality and serious brain injury rates increase.
Therefore, the ACS supports efforts to enact and sustain universal helmet laws for motorcycle riders.
Bibliography
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United States General Accounting Office: Highway Safety: Motorcycle Hemet Laws Save Lives and Reduce Costs to Society. (GAO/RCED-91-170). Washington DC: U.S. General Accounting Office, July 1991.
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