A COST-BENEFIT-ANALYSIS OF LEGISLATION FOR BICYCLE SAFETY HELMETS IN ISRAEL

Legislation requiring bicyclists to wear helmets in Israel will, over a helmet's 5-year duration (assuming 85% compliancy, 83.2% helmet effi ciency for morbidity, and 70% helmet efficiency for mortality), save a pproximately 57 lives and result in approximately 2544 fewer hospitali zations; 13 355 and 26 634 fewer emergency room and ambulatory visits, respectively; and 832 and 115 fewer short-term and long-term rehabili tation cases, respectively. Total benefits ($60.7 million) from reduct ions in health service use ($44.2 million), work absences ($7.5 millio n), and mortality ($8.9 million) would exceed program costs ($20.1 mil lion), resulting in a benefit-cost ratio of 3.01:1.