Do you wear a helmet when riding a scooter?

Do I seriously need to wear a helmet when riding a kick scooter?

• A always wear a helmet when I ride a bike but between classes, I use a Razor kick scooter. Im known around campus for it. However, my parents told me I really should be wearing a helmet. They aren't the bosses of me, but I was wondering if I need to wear a helmet for it. It would cause so much inconvenience, since I usually just need a small backpack for my laptop and notebooks, and I honestly dont feel like carrying a helmet with me. At age 19, do I still need to wear a helmet?

• Answer:

  Go visit a few physical therapy sessions for people who have suffered a brain injury - that will convince you that any minor inconvenience now is worth avoiding what those souls are dealing with. The effect of any blow to the head is unpredictable, even from falls or blows that appear minor. The precise point of impact on the skull, the angle of the impact, the direction of travel, and obviously the speed of impact. The difference of a few degrees in the impact can turn a minor headache into major debilitating trauma. No one can even begin to guess what those might be from even a minor tumble off of a scooter. My sincere advice is to wear one. EDIT: it is not only the speed of the vehicle that is the cause of brain damage. It is the speed with which your skull hits the concrete. Your head is on the end of a very nice pivot point - your neck. Falling can cause your head to have a great deal more momentum as it whips around on your neck. That is the danger. Really - do a internet search on traumatic brain injury - you will learn a lot.