Originally Posted by
irishbill76
"but what we do know is that it's extremely rare for a cyclist to suffer a serious injury or death from a simple fall"
Based on what evidence? I would argue that most accidents involving any kind of injury to a cyclist aren't necessarily logged and reported.
Based on hospital and fatality records. There are very few deaths to mountain bikers who had fallen on trails.
And those accidents cyclists have that aren't reported? They usually aren't reported because the resulting injuries (if any) are minor and require little to no treatment.
Don't get me wrong, cyclists do die and/or suffer serious injury from simple falls, but in over 90% of the cases where they do die, it's because they were hit by a motor vehicle at a speed far above what a helmet was made to help with. They also die from injuries other than head injuries (even when cause of death is listed as ahead injury)
Same thing with pedestrians. They fall over, hit their heads, and die too, but it's pretty rare. Most often when pedestrians die or suffer serious injury, they were hit by a car as well.
As for helmet foam compressing easily, I don't about yours, but mine isn't made from jello. Helmets are designed to compress so that your head doesn't.
EPS (the foam inside a helmet) is made to crush, and it crushes with far less force than a skull does. Just because it crushes, doesn't mean you avoided a serious injury, it could mean you avoided a minor injury.
THis doesn't mean a helmet is useless, it just means it has limitations, and you should consider these limitations when making claims of efectiveness