Originally Posted by
wphamilton
Scrapes, cuts, contusions are fairly common head injuries which are pretty well protected by a helmet. Whether protection against minor injuries is worth it to a given rider on a given day is another story.
Not to forget the possibility of skull fractures and inter-cranial hemorage, for which the helmets provide some significant protection. Anticipating ILTB's next comment, although this data is from pediatric patients:
Pediatric bicycle injury prevention and the effect of helmet use: the West Virginia experience.
"Skull fractures occurred in 3.2% of the helmeted and 17.4% of the un-helmeted (p = 0.0408) riders. The rate of intra-cranial hemorrhage was 0% in helmeted riders and 17.4% in un-helmeted riders"
To be sure, this says nothing of the likelihood of an injury to begin with but does suggest that these kinds of injuries are mitigated.
There is plenty of concrete hard evidence that arranging for a cushioned shield to take the brunt of any blow to the head is a very good idea.
Objections to helmets boil down to disputing this very concept, sometimes unconsciously.
The most common reason I see for skeptics is that they never hit their head in a fall yet. They mistake luck for safety.
If scientific studies only looked at cases that validate the initial assumption we would all be patting each other in the back between nasty surprises.
To find out a good approximation to the truth one must consider all outcomes. The lucky cyclists and the unlucky ones.
That why I was already wearing a helmet the day my luck run out, and I am here because of it.