I just want to chime in with others that counseling might be helpful for your DH, as well as the two of you together, to help you communicate with each other about your feelings on this issue.

To illustrate, a brief background on my own experience with injury, recovery, and fear of "getting back on the horse."

I got seriously hurt about 18 months ago while working on a design-build in a foreign country. A large gate fell on me and my sacrum was fractured. I had to be flown home, couldn't put any weight on my right side for six weeks, and went through months of PT.

Immediately after my accident, I was on an emotional high; I was just happy to be alive, happy the doctors were telling me that they didn't expect me to have any permanent damage. (I'm still walking with a limp)

About six months out, when I began to get back into my normal routine, I started to have nightmares about my accident, and about any other kind of accident my brain could imagine while I was asleep. I became depressed. I live in Seattle and when I visited the new Olympic Sculpture Park some of the art pieces caused me to have anxiety attacks. I would be afraid to cross the street in some places, because in Seattle we have some intersections that have no stop signs and no traffic lights, although drivers are supposed to yield to pedestrians.

I felt really embarrassed and ashamed of my fears, but I knew I couldn't continue to function that way, so I found a counselor who specialized in PTSD and injury recovery and it was tremendously helpful. Some joint sessions with my DH have also been really helpful, since we were not in sync in terms of how I felt about my injury and what he went through when I got injured. It took me a while to convince DH to do the joint sessions, though. He's now glad we did.

Riding my bike actually feels more natural to me than walking, but since I am also worried about the dangers of riding in traffic, I'm planning to take some of those safety classes that I've seen others mentioned in this thread.

It sounds like your DH went through a hard time with his injuries and doesn't want to see the same happen to you or your children. The safety classes might help address that, but if his brain is hard-wired to expect the worst, I'd really recommend getting some outside-third-party objective help.

Injuries should not stop you from enjoying the things you love. You learn that fire is hot by getting too close, right? But it's still beautiful, and great for roasting marshmallows.

-Jocelyn