Originally Posted by Closed Office

One detail that I did not think of is that if you are in an accident that stops your
bicycle suddenly, your legs get brushed up as you go over the handle bars. This
starts your body rotating and the most likely landing point is the point on the head.
When it happened to me on a downhill stretch at a high rate of speed, I went
flipping over the handlebars and landed at the top (technically at that point the
bottom) of my head. Both my helmet and my bike were toast. Both the top tube
and the down tube of the bike were bent down about 3 inches behind the steering,
at a significant angle that I'd never seen in a bike frame before. There was nothing
left of my helmet but the chin strap with a couple of small pieces of foam on each
end of it, dangling from my glasses (when I found them).

Landing on my head wasn't the end of my motion. I did take a serious beating with
thumps. I did make it to work on time thanks to someone who saw it happen and
offered me a ride. There was plenty of visible damage even after I cleaned off the
blood. A woman at work said "Good morning" and I answered "Good morning.....sort
of," and she had a good laugh at that. It took a few days before I finally got the
lenses in my glasses both pointing in the same direction again.

But I was really impressed that one part that wasn't at all sore was the top of my
head. The helmet was in pieces, but in a really nice way that saved impact to my
head. I don't know if that is a part of the design, but I am really thoroughly grateful
that I was wearing it on that ride, as I usually do.

I certainly don't mind anyone else not wearing theirs, but I'm going to be wearing
mine. I did post most of this in helmet thread before, but I think there is a bit of
value to it. I might not even have been wearing a helmet that day if I hadn't heard
so many people talk about the importance of doing that.