By Hayley Kappes
Killeen Daily Herald

As children grow up, they gradually seek different routes from parental dependence. One of the biggest milestones for a child is learning to ride a bicycle, skateboard or roller skate for the first time.

Bumps and bruises are inevitable along the way, but a parent's worst nightmare is if their child suffers a serious head injury, without wearing a helmet.

Nearly 300,000 children 14 and younger were treated for bicycle-related head injuries in 2002, and the previous year, 134 children died in the United States from not wearing a helmet, according to Safe Kids Worldwide, a nonprofit organization that aims to prevent children from accidental injuries.

Helmet use among children has been an issue in Texas for years.

Samuel Forjuoh, director of research at Scott & White Hospital in Temple, received a grant from the Texas Department of Transportation in 2001 to do research on helmet use.

Through the grant, Forjuoh formed the Waco Traffic Safety District Helmet Promotion Project. Forjuoh said the project's purpose was to increase helmet use among children in McLennan and Bell counties.

"When we started this study in 2002, helmet use was around 14 percent of children in the two counties," Forjuoh said. "We created activities and programs that encouraged kids to wear helmets."

The program distributed helmets to children who didn't have one, and helmet use rose to 19 percent in both counties. Project members also visited area schools to discuss how and why helmets should be worn.

"We went to schools and gave a demonstration by dropping an egg on the floor that was protected by a helmet and one that wasn't," Forjuoh said. "The protected egg wouldn't break and the unprotected egg broke. This demonstrated what would happen to their brains if they didn't wear a helmet."

Getting children to wear helmets is difficult since there is no law in Texas requiring bicyclists of any age to wear a helmet, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. However, riders 20 years old and younger are required by law to wear a helmet on a motorcycle.

Forjuoh said it is parents' responsibility to ensure their children are wearing a helmet before they go skating, ride a bike or skateboard.

"Parents should set an example for their children by wearing helmets," he said. "It's one of those things where it's like father, like son. If children are given the right example, they will form positive helmet habits."

He said people who wear helmets improve their chances of avoiding a head injury by 85 percent, as opposed to people who do not wear one.

"If a kid falls, they're going to have a soft tissue injury, a concussion and they can have lacerations and bruises on the head," Forjuoh said. "What you have to worry about is brain damage because it's difficult, if not impossible, to reverse brain damage."

The Killeen Independent School District sends a form home with a student if he or she suffers a head injury at school, but do not show serious signs of damage at the school clinic. The form advises parents to watch for symptoms, including severe headache, nausea, dizziness, vision problems, loss of muscle coordination, irregular breathing and excessive drowsiness. Parents should awaken the child up at least twice during the night to ensure they have not slipped into a coma. If a child exhibits any signs of irregular behavior, he or she should be taken to the emergency room.

Elodia Vasquez, clinic aide at Clarke Elementary on Fort Hood, said she immediately calls 911 for any child who sustained a serious head injury at school. If it's not serious, the parents are called and the student is treated with bandages or an ice pack.

"We get head injuries very seldom in the year," Vasquez said. "Usually a majority of the time it's at recess when kids roughhouse too much."

Contact Hayley Kappes at hayleyk@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7559.

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