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Ontario's bike helmet law for children under 18 helps save one life every two months, an analysis of cycling deaths that occurred before and after the bill was enacted suggests.

The study found that the number of children who died in the province every year has halved since the mandatory helmet law came into effect in late 1995, to an average of six a year from a pre-legislation average of 13.

The study cannot definitely prove that the law was responsible for the drop in deaths. The authors suggest a number of factors - including cycling safety education - plus the legislation are probably behind the decline.

"If you just look at that, then the average of deaths pre-[legislation] and average number of deaths post-[legislation], there is a significant reduction. ... And it turns out it's a 52-per-cent reduction," said Patricia Parkin, senior author of the study and director of the Paediatric Outcomes Research Team at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.

The study, by researchers from Toronto, Texas Children's Hospital in Houston and the Okanagan Health Surgical Centre in Kelowna, B.C., was published yesterday in the journal Pediatrics.

Alison Macpherson, an injury-prevention expert at York University, said the findings refute a claim made by opponents of bike helmet laws that helmets don't prevent deaths due to cycling injuries.

Ms. Macpherson, who was not involved in this research, insisted that even though the overall effect is not massive, it is significant.

"You know, it's not huge," she said of the number of children whose lives were saved. "But if one of them was yours, it would be a huge difference to you."

For the study, the researchers compared bike-related deaths in Ontario between 1991 and 2002, looking at deaths among adults and children. They classified as children those aged 15 and younger. Under the Ontario law, parents are fined $80 if children 15 and younger ride without a helmet; teens aged 16 and 17 are fined directly. Adults are not required to wear helmets under the law.

During the study period there were 362 bicycle-related deaths, 107 of which involved children aged 15 and younger. Only nine of the children who died were reported to have been wearing a helmet at the time of their accident - three before the law was enacted, and six after.

Compared to the pre-legislation period, the number of deaths among children declined 52 per cent after the law came into effect. But among adult cyclists there was no decline. In fact, death rates among adult cyclists rose 5 per cent after the legislation came into effect.

Dr. Parkin and her co-authors suggested the findings provide support for the idea that the mandatory helmet law should be extended to adults as well.

Ontario is one of six provinces that has legislation requiring some or all cyclists to wear helmets. Helmets are mandatory in British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Alberta, like Ontario, demands helmet use only for cyclists under 18 years of age.

There is no bike helmet legislation in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, Newfoundland, Yukon, the Northwest Territories or Nunavut, according to data compiled by Safe Kids Canada, an organization that promotes strategies to safeguard children from avoidable injuries.