NC kids can get free bike helmets, thanks to specialty cycling license plate

Kids are required to wear helmets when they ride a bicycle in North Carolina, but that’s hard to do if you don’t own one.

So each year, the N.C. Department of Transportation buys thousands of bike helmets for children whose families might not otherwise be able to afford one. NCDOT is now taking applications from local government and nonprofit groups who would like to distribute helmets to children in their area.

Last year, a record 163 organizations requested and received helmets, including schools, police departments and local Safe Kids groups. The program, which began in 2007, has provided more than 30,000 helmets over the last five years, including nearly 12,000 last year.

Money for the helmets comes from the “Share the Road” specialty license plate. The plates cost $60 a year, twice the charge for a standard plate, with $20 going to the helmet and other bicycle safety programs.

Since 2001, state law has required all bicycle riders and passengers under age 16 to wear an approved helmet while riding on a public road or trail. Wearing helmets is optional for anyone over 16.

Yet children between the ages of 6 and 18 were the least likely of any age group to wear helmets in the year after the law went into effect, according to a study by the UNC Highway Safety Research Center. NCDOT says fewer than half of all children wear helmets while biking and that children ages 5 to 14 visit emergency rooms for bicycle-related injuries more than any other sport or recreational activity.

For more information about NCDOT’s Bicycle Helmet Initiative, including an application, go to www.ncdot.gov/initiatives-policies/safety/bicycle-helmets. Applications are due by 5 p.m. on Feb. 4, 2022. Applicants can request 25, 50, 75 or 100 helmets, which will be distributed by April 29, 2022.