[beyond the sea]

Someone (Jim Quinn) who has ridden bikes for 40 years, and I trust him, suggested on his radio show for the past days, that if Ben had had on one of those full helmets with the face protection (the thing that looks like a big bird) he could have hit that window, his head could have snapped back very quickly, and he could be a quadriplegic today. So, that's just one thing to think of.

But..... if I ever got on a motorcycle, I'd wear a helmet.

[HEY4QDEMS]

That is possible, especially with the older models of full face helmets.

But the newer ones, made in the last 5 years or so, are cut high in the back with additional padding allowing full range of backward motion.

Even with the new design however, there is still a neck injury disclaimer accompanying the product.

[joeystoy]

I laid down my bike last year and slid across the wet pavement. My head hit a stop sign pillar and snapped pretty violently. I had a headache, plus a broken collarbone and four cracked ribs, along with a cracked helmet. I'm not a quad. I don't have a six-inch crack in my skull. And I'm still riding. I don't like helmet laws either. BUT PLEASE: Wear your helmet. Ride responsibly. And assume that every driver on the planet is out to kill you.

[busstopsindetroit]

"he could have hit that window, his head could have snapped back very quickly, and he could be a quadriplegic today. "

I'm confused about why people think this-at that kind of velocity I don't think either head or helmet would have bounced off a piece of glass. I would kind of think that like a hard metal bullet vs. a rubber one, a hard helmet would penetrate even more forcefully foreward through the glass than a soft head, not bounce back. I tend to think if you're gonna get a spinal cord injury you'll get it helmet or no helmet, but brain injury of course should be much less frequent with a helmet. But I'm no scientist, and no one can really say what exactly would have happened in any one accident. The facts are that helmet wearers get fewer and less severe injuries overall than non-helmet wearers. I think you have to go with that stat, just like seatbelts, there are far more people injured and dead as a direct result of not wearing them than as a direct result of wearing them.