Originally Posted by
FBinNY
I don't wear a helmet, but the idea that helmets do little or nothing to prevent serious injury is as inaccurate as the belief that they prevent most or all serious injuries. Helmets mitigate brain or head injury by lowering the G-force of impacts. An impact that might result in a mild concussion, might be mitigated to no injury. An impact that might have caused a severe concussion or skull fracture may be mitigated to a mild concussion w/o skull fracture.
There is absolutely no research that supports your argument. By design, a bicycle helmet can fall from 5 feet without cracking. That is nowhere near the structural integrity or impact resistance to mitigate any fall more serious than tripping over a curb. A bicycle helmet cannot prevent skull fracture and, in fact, is not desiged to do so.
Secondly, serious TBI is not caused by the linear forces of impact. TBI is caused by the diffuse axonal injury that occurs with rotation. There is evidence that helmets not only do not mitigate such forces, but may, in fact, magnify them.