Pretty obvious there are a lot of non-riders here.
(excuse me while I rant)
So quickly, folks, my only chance for survival surrounded by two-ton hulks operated by people more interested in the radio, CD player, applying makeup, the cell phone conversation they are having, snarfing that burger, or keeping little Johnny or Junie in their carseat so they don't get a ticket, is to be able to see and anticipate your actions and use the superior handling charracteristics of my motorcycle to get out of your way.
After suffering a neck injury 25 years ago (incidentally, from a driver who failed to yield the right-of-way), I cannot wear a helmet and look around adequately without doing some damage.
Kindly consider that the helmet ONLY helps sometimes if you are in a wreck. Keep in mind that almost all studies on the subject concentrate only on what happens in the wreck, and you might realize that the focus has NOT been on preventing accidents (a situation where no one gets hurt, regardless of atire), but on trying to mitigate the decellerative forces (60-0 MPH NOW!) no human was designed to endure by adding another 3-5 lbs. on the end of their neck.
Two out of three multivehicle accidents resulting in fatality to the motorcyclist are the automobile operator's fault. So go ahead, blame the biker for not wearing a helmet, when if they hadn't been cut off or hit, they wouldn't have been scratched.
3 weeks for you wardaddy, 17 years for me to crash my STREET bike(dirt bikes are another whole storybook), and like Smokin' Joe says, it was a car driver. And to make this stick even better, it was a woman in an SUV that changed her mind at an intersection and made a turn from the wrong and illegal lane. Down goes the Blue Collar Christian, breaks his right hand and wrist that are very important to his repairing motorcycles, and totaled is his plush ride.
My full face helmet had not even a scratch on it. My leather jacket, on the other hand, shows deep cuts in the sleeve where I hit the rain gutter and hefty scraping where my arms and belly slid along the pavement. My golves were ruined, but except for the broken bones, there was no abrasion damage to my hands. My jeans were ripped open to allow my knees access to the pavement, but those knees have seen a lot of pavement from bicycle incidents as a kid.
People need to learn that when you miss your turn, you miss your turn. Go up another block, off-ramp or light and find your way back to where YOU MISSED YOUR TURN!