Protect Your Egg…Have You Considered the Risks?

Protected Egg

Helmets and helmet laws make for an interesting and sometimes polarizing discussion within the motorcycling community.  Personally, I always wear a helmet but I don’t believe in legislating compliance. Although I’ve worked in and around government all my life, I’m not a big-government kind of guy.  I believe in individual responsibility and freedom of choice.  As riders, we know motorcycling is inherently more risky than driving a car and we accept that fact.

In order to stay alive on a motorcycle, we need to understand the risks we face and the tools we have available to manage/mitigate those risks.  To gain a better understanding of one of the tools in our rider toolbox, I asked motorcyclists on Reddit and Google+ about their helmet wearing habits and what they thought about mandatory helmet laws.  I received over 200 comments from riders across the world. I’ve summarized some of the more common responses and conditions riders listed for wearing or not wearing a helmet in the Table below.  Not surprisingly, most riders who responded said they were NOT in favor of mandatory helmet laws…bikers are definitely an independent lot.

Table:  Common Reasons/Conditions

Wear A Helmet	Don’t Wear A Helmet
Protect My Head/Face	Better Visibility/Hearing
Don’t Like Rocks/Bugs in Face	Feels Good - Wind in Hair/Face
Wind At Speed Hurts Face	Hurts Head/Neck
Saved Life in Previous Accident	Biker Culture
Only In Town	Never Ride on Highway/Never Ride Fast
When Travelling at High Speeds	When Travelling at Low Speeds
Consideration for Family	It Messes Up My Hair
It’s the Law	Stick it to “The Man”

I was surprised by some of the reasons and conditions given because they potentially indicate a misunderstanding about what helmets are designed to do.  While DOT and Snell rated helmets are designed to protect us from head and brain injuries, that protection is optimized for a limited set of conditions.  Contrary to what some may think, helmets are not designed for direct high-speed impacts. By design, helmets provide the greatest protection for impacts under 30 mph.

DOT helmet standards focus on three areas of performance: impact attenuation/energy absorption, penetration resistance, and retention system effectiveness.   From an impact point of view, helmets are tested via a drop test and allow for a peak acceleration of 400 G (G is gravity constant).  This is effectively like travelling 13.5 mph and hitting a stationary/immovable object (with your head) and coming to a complete stop in 1.5 milliseconds.  That’s a lot of force!  It’s easy to see why helmets aren’t very effective in direct high-speed impacts…the brain can’t survive the higher G forces.   Fortunately, most motorcycle accidents occur at speeds well under 30 mph and most don’t involve decelerating to a complete stop in under 0.0015 seconds…conditions where helmets protect the best.

Although it may be somewhat dated, the Hurt Study: Motorcycle Accident Cause Factors and Identification of Countermeasures provides some great insights into motorcycle accidents and prevention.  Every rider should read the study summary, but here’s what I found most interesting:

• Three-fourths of motorcycle accidents involve collision with another vehicle (usually a car).
• One-fourth of motorcycle accidents are single vehicle accidents involving the motorcycle colliding with the roadway or some fixed object.
• Rider error is responsible for two-thirds of single vehicle accidents, with the typical error being a slide out and fall due to over braking or running wide on a curve due to excess speed or under-cornering.
• Most motorcycle accidents involve short trips (i.e. shopping, errands, friends, entertainment or recreation) and are most likely to happen shortly after starting the trip.
• The median pre-crash speed was 29.8 mph, the median crash speed was 21.5 mph, and the one-in-a-thousand crash speed is approximately 86 mph.
• Intersections are the most likely place for a motorcycle accident, with the other vehicle violating the motorcycle right-of-way, and often violating traffic signals.
• The failure of motorists to detect and recognize motorcycles in traffic is the main cause of motorcycle accidents (i.e. “I didn’t see a motorcycle”).
• More than three-fourths of all accident hazards are within 45 degrees of either side of straight ahead… peripheral vision is generally not a factor.
• Voluntary helmet use by riders involved in an accident was lowest for untrained, uneducated, young riders on hot days and short trips.
• The majority of riders involved in accidents have essentially no formal training (i.e. MSF, Riders Edge, etc.). Formal rider training reduces accident involvement and is related to reduced injuries in an accident does occur.

Unprotected Egg

From a risk management perspective, wearing a helmet won’t reduce your chances of being involved in an accident but it will reduce the probability of sustaining a head/brain injury.  As riders, we should make deliberate decisions about the gear we wear.  While “sticking it to the man” or “not wanting to mess up your hair” may be valid personal reasons for not wearing a helmet, neither indicates you’ve consciously (no pun intended) thought about the risks you’ll encounter on your ride.

So, will you protect your egg?  Whatever you decide is up you…you just need to understand the risks and be willing to accept them.  Remember, Live Free, Ride Hard, Be Happy…and Ride Safe!

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References:

http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/helmet_laws.html

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/809861.pdf

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811639.pdf

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811759.pdf

http://www.cdc.gov/Features/MotorcycleSafety/

http://www.bikersrights.com/statistics/twisting.html

http://www.bikersrights.com/statistics/trauma.html

http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~john/vfr/hurt.html

http://www.bikersrights.com/statistics/goldstein/reviews/reviews.html

http://www.bikersrights.com/statistics/goldstein/reviews/1.html

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811011.pdf

http://www.abateofmichigan.org/HelmetLawInfo.htm

http://ultimatemotorcycling.com/motorcycle-helmet-standards-explained-dot-ece-22-05-snell/
http://www.motorcyclehouse.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-motorcycle-helmet-standards-dot-part-1/

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2011-title49-vol6/pdf/CFR-2011-title49-vol6-sec571-218.pdf