Originally Posted by cyclintom
...It is VERY important for people to understand that a helmet MOSTLY works by crushing. If you see a helmet broken up and the foam not crushed to half of its original depth it didn't work. It might have spread the blow around on your skull so that your skull could take the blow, but the main job of a helmet is to ABSORB the energy and not simply to spread it out over a wider surface area.
Lately what I've been seeing is more and more people reporting that helmets are breaking and not crushing. ...
Wrong again. Helmets need to compress and ABSORB to a point, then BREAK/SHATTER. And they do work just like that, just fine. Only major design flaw I will concede in modern helmets is the shape, round with more coverage area always works better than small/aero which tends to twist the head on impact. And maybe the attractive shiny plastic glued at the top, prevents a hundred pieces of foam from flying out.
Also, you definition of MAJOR v/s MINOR injury only suits insurance companies.
And one last thing, do shorten your posts, I'm not sure where my day 4 nausea is coming from.