Wear one all the time. Wear a seat belt too (nope not on the bike
). Anything to help slow me down beside my skin.
Sorry ditch, but the conclusion you make is not statistically backed up and It's not any more accurate than someone saying "If he hadn't been wearing a seat belt, he would have lived".
In my own experience in the field I can't make any claims one way or the other (and I believe everyone should wear lids) because there are too many variables for each accident. It's all about physics and chance. Chance you can't do anything about physics, you can sometimes soften it's affect or control the energies acted upon you to some degree lessening the direct assault to your body (don't forget about kinematics).
Hyper flexion of the cervical spine, occurs whether there is a helmet helping or not, the helmet doesn't cause it, a sudden unsupported rapid deceleration does or maybe direct axial loading in conjunction impact but those same forces would likely take that cervical spine out in either case.
Biker, you too are correct, but as ditch may also agree the best person to take a helmet off may not necessarily be in the hospital, often the rely on the grunts from the field. Anyone worth his salt knows how to handle a helmet, and that is often delayed to the hospital unless there is an airway issue just to be on the safe side unless the helmet itself compromises stabilization.
But here is one element I don't think any one has tagged about the "issue" related to choice. If wearing a helmet reduces the risk of head injury (assumption here that physics plays into it, something absorbs initial energies acted upon your skull) And head injuries are one of the most costly injuries in terms of initial health care and for many, long term convalesent care. Someone's "choice" then affects us all. Should not then it be an issue for the whole as well as the individual since it does affect us all?
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