But fully 30 percent of those who wear bike helmets wear them wrong. The helmet should be worn level on the head, with the chin strap tightened below the chin. "We saw helmets tilted so far they exposed half the head," Mower said. The pointy part of the helmet belongs in back. Newer helmets, he noted, are harder to put on backwards.

"We saw people with no chin strap buckled at all. If you fall off the bike, the helmet will go flying. And some were so loose they were hanging below the chin."

School-age children and teens are involved in about two-thirds of all bicycle crashes with motor vehicles. Those age groups account for 41 percent of all bicycle deaths. Three-fourths of those injured are male, but males are also more apt to wear helmets.

The study suggests that if everyone wore a helmet on every ride, Utah emergency rooms would treat 920 fewer people every year and that would save at least $19 million in medical costs.

The entire report is available online at www.health.utah.gov/vipp.

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E-mail: lois@desnews.com