Can wearing a motorcycle helmet increase your chance of injury?

Question

I've asked before, I'm asking again:

I'm looking for information on motorcycle helmets and injuries. Specifically I need to find cases where someone on a motorcycle was:

a)wearing a helmet.

b)involved in an accident.

c)suffered injuries that would not have occurred if they had been wearing a helmet, or had injuries that were worsened because of the helmet.

I don't need second hand hearsay. I don't need to know about this thing that happened to this one guy you know. I facts that can be verified.

Also - if any medical professionals would we willing to correspond with me regarding this subject I'd appreciate it.

Thanks for your time.

Greydoc6 - I could really use your help. If you'd be interested in corresponding with me my email address is bigbob (at) ameritech (dot) net. Thank you for your time.

I am not an attorney. I have no professional interest in this at all. I am an avid motorcyclist and I ALWAYS wear a helmet when I ride.

I'm currently invovled in a debate with a local political lobbying group and I'm trying to find ammo for my side of the arguement: helmets are a good idea, and any arguement to the contrary is BS.

Thanks all for your help.

Answer 1

It is conceivable that a helmet could be a cause of injury. There may be rare cases where this is so.

However, a bicyclist or motorcyclist is statistically much less likely to sustain a head injury if wearing a helmet. This has been demonstrated in various ways many times.

For part of my career, I would serve as a ward attending on the convalescent unit for one month per year. On the ward there were always one or two kids with severe head injuries sustained from bicycle or ATV injuries. Practically all such patients were not wearing head protection at the time of the accident. Most survived, but recovery was painfully slow and often incomplete, requiring years of rehabilitation.

So the resistance to wearing helmets and your implication that they are harmful is very frustrating from my viewpoint.

Answer 2

You sound like an attorney fishing for work. There was a time when it was commonly said that helmets could cause injuries. But if you are wearing a helmet that:

1. Fits properly, snug but not tight.
2. Is secured under the chin with a strap.
3. Is manufactured and certified to meet certain standards. In the US the two most widely accepted standards are from the Snell Memorial Foundation and the US Department of Transportation (DOT).

In forty years of riding, I've witnessed motorcycle accidents, been in motorcycle accidents, and never has a helmet made an injury worse, or caused injury to the rider.

However, a couple of years ago, a friend died from injuries sustained in motorcycle accident. I don't know if it was the head injuries that killed him, but I do know that he was wearing a "boutique" helmet. This type of helmet is designed for appearance, not for protection. Boutique helmets are typically not certified to meet any standard.

I didn't answer your questions but I'll give you some leads. By the way, I've seen so many mc accidents; I don't think I can even remember them all.

"Hurt Report" 1981, University of California at Los Angeles analyzed several hundred motorcycle accidents by sending investigators to the accident scenes and then performing further investigation after that.

The Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) should also be able to provide you with sources of information.

The American Motorcycle Association (AMA) along with the MSF have funded a study to be done by the Oklahoma Transportation Center, affiliated with the Oklahoma State University at Stillwater. It will be the first major study of motorcycle accidents since the Hurt Report.

Answer 3

I work in the ER not wearing a helmet can definitely increase your chance of head injury if not death, helmets are there to protect your head in case of an accident. there's nothing that makes me mad than seeing someone ride there motorcycle without a helmet. PLs do wear them whenever you ride, unless you want to end in the ER or the morgue.