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SANTA FE — Starting soon, New Mexico will require every bike rider and skateboarder under 18 to wear a helmet.

"I hope they know that no one is going to follow the rule, and no one's going to enforce the rule," skateboarder Clifford Young, 15, said emphatically.

The state embarks July 1 on an ambitious campaign to get helmets on the heads of all young people - down to toddlers on tricycles - who are riding on public property on bikes, skateboards, skates or scooters.

It's the most comprehensive such state law in the nation, according to John McPhee, childhood injury prevention coordinator for the state Department of Health.

California is the only other state that requires helmets on those under 18 on a broad range of nonmotorized vehicles. Its law doesn't specify tricycles.

The goal of the new law isn't to punish - parents of violators face at most a $10 civil fine that can be waived if they buy a helmet - but rather to educate, McPhee said.

"We're trying to develop a whole generation of helmet users. The vision is to make helmets as automatic as seat belts . . . so in 20 years it's not even an issue," he said.

The state already had in place laws requiring minors to wear helmets on motorcycles, ATV's and other motorized vehicles.

Wearing a helmet is a given for many serious bicyclists, but the risk of brain injury exists "for anyone who has a head," said Dr. Lance Chilton, a pediatrician who commutes to work on his bike.

"Helmets are very cheap insurance," said Chilton, who credits his helmet for saving his life when he was hit by a pickup truck near his Albuquerque home.

Wearing a bike helmet can reduce the risk of head injury by 85 percent, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

"The point about helmets is they're incredibly effective in preventing injuries and reducing the risk for severe injuries," said Dr. Ben Hoffman, a pediatrician at the University of New Mexico who lobbied for the law.

Small children, whose heads are relatively larger, tend to fall head-first, Hoffman said.

"Falling off a bicycle onto concrete, a curb, onto rocks, can lead to brain injury - whether it's bruising or bleeding, or more significant brain injury," Hoffman said.

McPhee says there's no question the most resistance to compliance will come from the 14- to 17-year-old age group.

"They don't understand that you can hit your head once and, in effect, be disabled for life," he said.

McPhee says parents, teachers and recreational supervisors - not police - are intended to be the new law's primary enforcers. Community groups that are part of the New Mexico Safe Kids Coalition will try to raise money for a campaign to buy and distribute helmets.

Twenty other states, the District of Columbia and about 150 municipalities have some sort of helmet law for children, according to the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute.