Buy a $10 Bike Helmet at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates

Whether your a patient or not, Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates is providing bike helmets for $10 each to anyone who stops by.

You can pick one up at any of their 20 eastern Massachusetts offices, including the one on 165 Dartmouth Street. The deal is available all year long, but the nonprofit medical group is drawing special attention to the offer during May, which is National Bike Safety Month.

Massachusetts requires any child 16 or under riding a bike, or using inline skates, scooter or skateboard to wear a helmet.

By the numbers:

• Every year, more than 500,000 people in the US are treated in emergency departments.
• More than 700 people die as a result of bicycle-related injuries.
•  In 2001, 59 percent of bicycle-related injuries in the ER were children 15-years-old and younger. One in 8 were head injuries.
• A properly fitted helmet cuts the risk of brain injury by as much as 88 percent, but only about a quarter of young riders wear one.