Helmets do can safe a person's life given on certain situations of course but it does improve the livability factor if one has the fate to get into an accident.
I hate to throw water on this fire, BUT.
A wreck on a bicycle with the rider wearing a helmet, may help very much, if, for example, a car pulls out in front of you, and you go over the hood. Your head hit's pavement. The tension that your skin and skull would cause, could easily result in a serious injury. Or, you might just flip a few times and that's it.
In the early 70's, 71 or so, we never rode with helmets. Not because we were obtuse, and didn't think they were necessary, but they just weren't really thought of in those days. In fact, the only helmets we even saw, were 20 years pre-cable TV. You had ABC, NBC and CBS and possibly a local TV station back then, depending on where you lived back then. Almost all biking was a European thing back then, so it was once in a few months of "Wild World of Sports" that broadcast any kind of biking from France to the Rockies to VeloTrac. Only then did we see helmets, adults, riding in the mountains of Europe. Today, I believe that a modern helmet, although it won't win a fight with an oncoming F-350 truck at 35 mph, could easily save your life, or not.
But, given a little luck, it can absorb a lot of shock form an angle, vs. a head on accident, and can spread that shock over and around the skull, also allowing the helmet to let the head slide, instead of sticking where it hit, saving more lives. (Back to the point of the helmet absorbing some shock, then allowing your head to slide across pavement, rather than stick to the point of impact.)
I had an accident that most people would have never thought a human could survive. However, it involved myself on a crotch rocket, not a bicycle, at insane speeds, going over the side of a mountain in southern CA. How does this relate to a bicycle? My leathers and helmet saved me. My helmet came apart in the State Troopers hands when I was found. The leathers saved the skin on my ass, and helped keep me from "sticking" to the asphalt, and let me slide and dissipate the energy from the wreck. I woke up later, and numerous drunks in one car that tried their damnest to kill me were arrested. I concede that I was burning Kevlar on my knees in my leathers, but hey.... this is about surviving, I was riding crazy, in my dumbass youth, but wasn't the drunks in the car.
I know this isn't a motorcycle forum, but the dynamics of the human being hitting pavement, or vehicles, are very closely exactly the same. Will a helmet save you from that impact with a 2 ton truck? Pretty damned could be that the answer is no. Should you blow off a helmet because it might not save you? My guess is no. At least not in the US. I believe we are a state of rights, and since riding a bike is a right, unlike driving a car, then, except for minors, helmets should not be mandatory. Not here, not now. Take responsibility for your own decisions. Choose safety. I believe that in the few seconds you are watching yourself head for the pavement, you'd wish you had chosen a helmet, but then again, I support your right to choose for yourself. This has long been an argument for motorcyclists, and I don't think it will ever end, unless the state that the said rider either votes in mandatory helmet laws, or votes them out. I'll wear mine 24/7, but I believe in free will.
My best to all of you, on either side of this debate.
J.
