One of Colby Dees' smashed bicycle helmets hangs on the wall of his home office in Nampa - a reminder of a crash that required 150 stitches on his forehead and a couple of hours of plastic surgery.

"I have no doubt that if I had not had that helmet on, I wouldn't be around, or I'd be a much different person," said Dees, a father of three boys who used to take away his kids' bikes for several days if he caught them riding without helmets.

Dees estimates that he was going about 30 miles an hour when he collided with another cyclist in a race three years ago in south Ada County; he was run over by other cyclists.

In California, bicyclists who are 17 and younger are required to wear bicycle helmets. In Oregon, helmets are required for cyclists 15 and younger.

In Idaho, helmets are not required. Many cyclists - like Dees - believe from personal experience that helmets add an extra margin of safety.

Three cyclists who died in crashes in Boise during May and June - Thomas Bettger, 62, Jim Lee Chu, 55, and Kevin Pavlis, 37, - all were wearing helmets.

Linda Rowe, director of Saint Alphonsus health plazas in Eagle and Meridian, urges people to remember that crashes can occur any time, any place - not just in places such as highways.

She spent nine days in the hospital in July 2006 after crashing on the Greenbelt. The experienced cyclist who had done dozens of rides on the Greenbelt was sent flying when the chain came off her bike, and she lost control.

Rowe went over her handlebars and landed on her head. A concussion was the least of her injuries.

"The way I went off my bike, the helmet saved my life or saved me from serious damage," said Rowe, who suffered a broken right clavicle, five broken ribs, a collapsed lung and broken vertebra in her neck.

She said the incident didn't convince all of her friends to wear helmets; some still don't.

"I tell my friends, 'Are you nuts?' " she said. "They think, 'It won't happen to me. I'm not riding fast enough.' "

USE YOUR HEAD

The trauma medical director at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center and a pediatric neurosurgeon at Saint Luke's Boise Medical Center say there's no question that bicycle helmets protect the brain.

"Incidents of serious intracranial injuries are decreased," said Dr. Bill Morgan, Saint Al's trauma director. "If you get hit by a car at 50 or 60 mph and thrown into a vehicle, the helmet probably is not going to help you very much. Nothing is going to provide 100 percent protection."

Head injuries account for more than 60 percent of bicycle-related deaths and more than two-thirds of bicycle-related hospital admissions, according to the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute.

It's minor to middle range accidents where helmets make the biggest difference, Saint Luke's pediatric neurosurgeon Bruce Cherny said.

The Boise doctors say there are plenty of bicycle crashes each year that leave riders with serious facial or other injuries, but without fatal damage to the head.

"It may be catastrophic as far as cosmetics, but if you don't injure your brain it's survivable," Morgan said. "The face we can fix. The head I can't fix, a lot of the time."

There were 653 bicycle crashes involving cars between 2003 and 2007 in Idaho, according to Idaho Transportation Department data. Cyclists died in four of those crashes.

Morgan said the human head is well-designed to protect the brain, with protective layers of skin, muscle, skull, membranes and fluid. He said the bones in the face serve like a "crumple zone" on a car, dissipating the impact of a blow and minimizing injury to the brain.

Helmets also broadly distribute the energy of a blow to the head. A cracked helmet is easier - and cheaper - to replace than trying to fix a cracked head.

NOT JUST FOR KIDS

Boisean Howard Roose was in a crash in a race this spring that put a 2-inch crack in his helmet.

"I had my head down, missed a corner and hit a reflector post at 25 to 30 miles per hour," said Roose, 57.

He walked away from that crash with two separated shoulders, a cracked rib and a bruise on his leg.

"I won't ride my bike, even if it's 50 feet, unless I put my helmet on," Roose said.

Though laws in other states require kids to wear helmets, Morgan said kids' heads are no more vulnerable to head injury than adults' noggins. It's not uncommon for adults to shun helmets, even as they require their kids to wear them.

Alissa McKinley, coordinator for Saint Luke's Safe Kids Treasure Valley, said parents often come to educational events to get free or discounted helmets for kids.

"Most parents are on board (for their kids), but when you talk to them about wearing one they're hesitant," McKinley said. "They just kind of look at you funny."

Cherny said it bothers him greatly when he sees families riding bikes along the road, and the kids are wearing helmets - but the parents aren't. He said parents need to practice what they preach.

"How useful would it be for that parent to be smashed in an accident and be permanently brain injured?" Cherny said. "You're not going to do your kids any good if you're all broken up."

He said parents are a big part of creating an attitude and culture of safety by example - better than any helmet law.

McKinley said parents should let kids pick out their own helmets. If it fits right, but isn't a color or style they like, it may be tougher to get them to wear it. Multi-use helmets, which can be worn for a variety of sports, are popular with boys.

And while there may be no helmet law in Idaho, there is peer pressure in the bicycling community.

"I always harass people when I see them," avid bicyclist Ellie Rodgers said. "People think, 'I'm just going to go ride through the neighborhood.' You could hit a bump, you could hit a patch of sand."

Her nastiest crash was nine years ago in Grand Junction, Colo. She was drafting behind her husband, and touched his back wheel.

"I separated my shoulder and had a concussion. My helmet was pretty smashed on the left side," she said.

Craig Quintana, a bicyclist who survived a collision in 2006 with a Subaru Forester that rolled through a stop sign on Beacon Light Road at Eagle Road, said he stopped riding with a guy who didn't wear a helmet so he could get the wind through his hair.

"We just dropped him like a bad habit," Quintana said. "If you mountain bike, you're going to crash.

"If you don't wear a helmet, maybe you don't deep down think you have anything to protect."

Katy Moeller: 377-6413