Easy Way to Reduce Tornado Injuries: Helmets

Grab a bike helmet if one is coming, say Alabama researchers
By Dustin Lushing,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 13, 2012 4:50 PM CST
Easy Way to Reduce Tornado Injuries: Helmets
One of these might come in handy if a tornado is on the way.   (Shutterstock)

A cheap, practical, and easy way exists to reduce injuries during a tornado, say researchers at the University of Alabama: Wear a helmet. Strapping on a motorcycle, bicycle, or football helmet in a pinch could provide crucial protection, especially considering that head injuries are such a common cause of tornado deaths, the researchers write at the UAB website. They want the CDC to begin incorporating the advice into its preparedness warnings, reports the Birmingham News.

"It's such a common sense idea that we wonder why it hasn't caught on," says one of the authors of the report. The university's injury research center is teaming up with the Alabama Head Injury Foundation to develop a public awareness campaign across the state. (More tornado stories.)

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