Kanada has a one-payer health care system so it is understandable that the State mandates not only the wearing of helmets but seatbelts, child seats, etc. The State has 'skin' in the game? They pay the heath care tab. (not funeral services though).

U guys have personal health care insurance? So ........................ live free and die or worse, should be your choice. Why should ur fellow citizens be concerned! They aren't picking up the tab ($$)!

 

Now you've done it. Who wipes their butt and who doesn't is one thing but when you start discussing the pros and cons of wearing a helmet you've stepped over the line and have gone too bloody far.

 

 

Here's an undisputable fact: If you don't ever ride a motorcycle, you'll never end up in the ER or dead from wrecking a motorcycle.

Use this "fact" how ever you wish. Your Choice.

 

So it is a known fact that she would have survived if she had a helmet on?? HMMM

 

I don't think anyone will argue the benefit of helmets. To each his own as to acceptable risk.
Living in Ohio, I never wore a helmet. Here now in NC it's the law. 2014 in the wee hours a pick up truck blew a stop sign, coming out from behind a building and I hit him at 50 plus mph. I was unconscious before I hit the ground but from what we can determine, I flew over the truck and landed on my forehead, grinding the visor snaps on my 3/4 helmet clean off. It's better to be lucky sometimes I suppose.

 

Had no desire to be drawn into this type of discussion again, but My exact thought also!

 

The motorcyclist does not get to determine if he/she wears a helmet or not, the people who care about him/her get to decide that.

 

I have been saved by the helmet twicet. Some days I wear it and some days I don't. On the days i don't the wife makes me put it on anyways.

 

Bingo.

All things being equal, crashing with a helmet on is likely to turn out better than crashing without one.

That's about all you can say with certainty, and even that's not absolute. People are sometimes killed by helmets. The greater torque on the neck can cause internal decapitation, etc. There are people who have died who would have lived if they hadn't been wearing a helmet. There are no absolutes.

Still, there is little doubt that statistically speaking, if you're going to crash, you'll have a better outcome with a helmet.

I just don't think any of that has much to do with motorcycle safety. Forget the unlikely scenario where your helmet kills you, the fallacy is thinking your helmet makes you safe. In truth, helmets have next to nothing to do with motorcycle safety.

Motorcycle safety is about crash avoidance, not crash survivability. Easiest way to avoid a motorcycle crash is to not ride a motorcycle. In that sense, those who say "Riding a motorcycle without a helmet is unsafe and should be illegal" have no answer to those who say "Riding a motorcycle is unsafe and should be illegal". There is no bright line between the two positions.

Motorcycle safety is 99% about your skill, your alertness, your experience level, your situational awareness, your realistic understanding of your capabilities, your ability to anticipate dangers and proactively avoid them, etc, etc, etc.

Its all well and good to wear helmets and ATGATT and all that, but that stuff is where safety ends, not where it starts.