pwward wrote:However if the case for helmets rests on personal anecdote and nothing else then the case for them is weak. We know most brain injuries are simple falls and road crashes involving car occupants and pedestrians. ..... My own professional body, the BMA thinks they should be compulsory as does the Royal College of Surgeons and Royal College of Paediatricians. But cycling is statistically as safe as car occupancy and walking and does not have a higher rate of head injuries among those injured.
It is well known they are designed for about a 12 mph blunt impact,
Anecdotal evidence is OK by me. Surely if they are effective at low speed collisions then those people don't go to hospital and don't appear on the statistics. The only time I've fallen quite badly off my bike since my injury the helmet certainly saved me from worse injury. I whacked down on the front corner of my head, slid along the ground and hit the top of the helmet on a wooden post. I didn't go to hospital and I can't prove the helmet "saved me" but this anecdotal evidence feels right to me.
I know that the statistics don't lie but they don't tell the whole story either and I'm not repeating my "experiment" to find out.
I believe that the BMA, etc are correct even if the statistics don't prove that.
It's just impossible say for certain whether or not helmets work but I believe that they can and do protect your head to some degree. As I said even a 5% reduction in my injury would be of great benefit.
BTW I believe that re-learning to ride a bike literally saved my life. Period suicidal depression almost claimed me (my GP wanted to put me in hospital) but I cheered up immensely when I could ride 50 feet even though I couldn't steer or brake - it took me a while to learn to do that. It was real progress and gave me some control over my life.
My physios tell me that I'm the only one that they have seen who from such a low starting point has learnt to ride a bike. Everyone else arrives there in a car as walking / wheelchair wounded. I arrive by bike.