I had a low speed accident coming off a kerb went over the handle bars and landed on the back quarter of my head I saw stars even with the helmet on.
Yes, you would probably have also seen stars if you weren't wearing the helmet as well!
I have had a very slow speed accident that resulted in serious injury. I rode down the front of the dam at Dovestones reservoir, totally under control. Turned at the bottom and attemted to sideways hop off a wall about 12" high at probably less than 5mph. Got it wrong and landed on the road tangled with my bike and suffering a dislocated shoulder (I saw the funny side of it at the time!). What a moron, I obviously should have been wearing a helmet?
Another accident, this time high speed. Whizzing down a trail made of packed sandstone gravel when I saw a bumpy bit ahead so moved back on the saddle and prepared to bounce over it. What I didn't know was that the local council had been doing some ground work and what looked like 10-15 ft of bumpy track was actually a sloppy mixture of mud, clay and gravel that had been thrown back in the hole. Front wheel dissapeared past the hub and bike stopped dead but I didn't. I face planted in the mud at about 15mph and my body continued to try and travel past my head. How I didn't snap my neck I don't know? (This next bit is pure speculation) I reckon if I had been wearing a helmet the extra inch of polystyrene across my forehead might just have been all that was needed to snap my neck!
Does this mean no one should ever wear a helmet? Of course not but everyone has to understand that injuries come in all shapes and sizes and from many directions. A helmet may be very effective at limiting certain injuries but will be utterly useless or even worsen others. It's an individuals responsibility to weigh up the pro's and con's and decide what they want to do.
When the helmet was removed for inspecting there was a large dent on the point of impact. I will always ware a helmet even for a quick trip the the newsagents.
I have a huge problem with this statement and others like it. There can be very little factual correlation between helmet damage and the claimed prevented injury in the real world. As an example consider the following hypothetical situation;
You are driving along in your car and come to a point where there is railings on your left and a badly parked truck on the opposite side of the road to your right which just leaves you room to squeeze through. You can see there is room so drive through the gap and continue your journey. Now lets look at the situation again but this time you are very protective of your car so you fix 6" blocks of polystyrene to the sides of your car to keep it safe. You then drive through the same gap, ripping and gouging at the blocks as you go and once through you step out of the car and OMG! Look at the mess! It's a good job you put that polystyrene there because judging by the damage it has received it has saved your precious
head car from some serious
injuries dents?
Does this mean you would be an idiot to wear a helmet? No.
Does this mean you are stupid if you don't wear a helmet? No.
Going back to my face plant mentioned above, the cycle glasses I was wearing at the time suffered a huge scratch across one lense and I would definitely maybe have lost an eye if I hadn't been wearing them
