I am on vacation with the family in the Outer Banks in North Carolina this week. Michele and I rented bikes and were riding back to the rental house when I heard a noise behind me. I glanced back to see another rider splayed in the middle of the road. He'd been clipped by a car.

I ran up to him and flagged the traffic to stop. He didn't respond to what I was saying to him at all. I called 911 and a woman ran up from a stopped car. Luckily for him (and me) she was a trauma nurse and held his head in place.

I held his hand as we waited as what seemed like a long time, but what actually was under 5 minutes for a team of paramedics to arrive. He kept squeezing my hand but couldn't respond to our words. The nurse and I talked to him and he only spoke once, telling us his name was Steven.

I have no doubt that without his helmet, I would have run up to him and found a dead man. Last year, my friend Lilo died in a bicycle accident when he wasn't wearing a helmet.

Please, please wear a helmet while riding your bicycle.