Originally Posted by
merlinextraligh
I don't care if you choose not to wear a helmet.
I think that for the most part the issue of riding with others that don't wear a helmet relates to organized group rides. Unfortunately in our litigious society, if you injured on a group ride, not wearing a helmet, it's going to increase the legal risk of the organizers. Also a policy requiring helmets is likely to decrease insurance costs for the Organizers.
Along those same lines, if some negligent driver creams you and causes severe head injury, you can bet that they're going to raise the defense of comparative negligence, if you're not wearing a helmet. In other words they will argue that the cyclist caused his own head injury by not wearing a helmet. The same argument is made all the time in auto accidents where injured victims weren't wearing their seat belts.