Originally Posted by
Six jours
This would leave one to believe that actual figures are forthcoming. Hopefully your readers have gotten over their dissapointment...
BTW, anyone with a calculator can figure out that a 5000 pound SUV traveling at highway speeds does, in fact, generate a half-million foot pounds of energy. You're the one who threw out the "But the helmet doesn't have to absorb all of it!" strawman.
That's an awful lot of unsubstantiated opinion, coming from someone whining about "intuition". Do yourself a favor and actually research the statistics. If you're an honest man, you'll discover that in the big picture, helmets make a very small difference.
Oh, and speaking as an old paramedic, I'm here to tell you that when a human body is struck by a motor vehicle at 40+ MPH, the coroner can choose from a dozen different causes of death. Anyone who has actually seen the results of such a collision truly understands how futile a few ounces of styrofoam are.
Seems to me that decent, thoughtful people don't need a reason to let grown-ups make their own decisions in peace.
It is clear that this is going nowhere which isn't a surprise given your long and distinguished history of snarky posts on this subject. I have offered no straw men. The straw man here is when you say that a helmet must absorb the entire energy of vehicle collision to be of any use. I will certainly agree that if you stand in front of a 40 mph and try to stop it with your head, you will die regardless of whether or not you wear a helmet. I have not suggested that a helmet will save you from every type of life-threatening injury when you are hit by a car. You are correct that it will only save you from a specific type of injury. It just happens to be that this type of injury is statistically probable among injuries, and that is has the nasty habit of killing you or giving you permanent brain damage.
Here is some substantiation for my argument. I presume you'll provide same.
http://www.helmets.org/henderso.htm
http://depts.washington.edu/hiprc/pr...meteffect.html
http://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/preview/mmwrhtml/00036941.htm
The University of Washington page provides a list of references used in their analysis. You can go get these papers at a University library near you if you care to do the research. I will, in fact, leave you alone now since I don't think that these three links or the 74 papers cited by the UW link will deter you from jumping into every single helmet thread to suggest not wearing one. And of course every time you do this you will then complain about how you are so picked on and you just want to be left alone.
Enjoy your bike. Don't fall off.