As the family and friends of Kevin Morsching know all too well, death due to accidental head injury is not something that can happen on a skateboard or bicycle. It is something that does happen.

Funeral services for the 21-year-old South Dakota State University student and baseball player will be held today in Rapid City. He suffered a brain injury on Aug. 20 in a skateboard accident and died Aug 27 in a Sioux Falls hospital. Morsching was not wearing a helmet.

While deaths caused by skateboard accidents are rare, injury, especially brain injury, is not.

Conservative medical estimates are that 900 people die annually from brain injuries caused by sports and recreational activities in the U.S., but as many as 216,000 Americans suffer traumatic brain injury from things like skateboarding, bicycling, skiing and organized sports each year.

Younger children are especially prone to brain injury from wheeled sports. Fifty percent of kids under 14 who are hospitalized for accidents involving bicycles, skateboards and in-line skates are diagnosed with a brain injury of some sort.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission estimated 125,713 emergency room visits in 2006 nationally were related to skateboarding. In 2004, about 18,000 skateboarders were treated in hospital emergency rooms for brain injuries, though just 4 percent of those were hospitalized. The ER numbers are even greater for bicyclists, with about 151,000 head injuries caused by bike accidents in 2004. Seven percent of those required hospitalization.

Helmets help prevent many of those injuries and deaths.

Non-helmeted riders are 14 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than helmeted riders. Bicycle helmets, especially, are estimated to prevent 85 percent of critical head and brain injuries and 75 percent of fatalities in bike accidents.

As the community grieves with the Morsching family over the tragic loss of their son and brother, every one of us who loves someone who loves to ride a skateboard or bicycle should take a moment today to speak to them about helmet use.

It is a message that can save a life.