Originally Posted by
Thor29
So you guys are saying that helmets aren't supposed to protect you against concussions? What exactly are they for then? It's funny that every time someone falls on their head with a helmet on, the assumption is that the injuries would have been much worse without it. Okay, sure, it must have absorbed SOME of the impact energy, but how much exactly? Is it okay if the helmet absorbs only 5 percent of the energy? How do you know if a helmet is doing its job unless you volunteer to land on your head once with a helmet on and once without? Otherwise, the amount of protection offered by helmets is somewhat speculative and the helmet worshippers will claim that surely your head would have exploded into a fine mist without it.
I'm only suggesting that if the fall was in fact "
slight", a concussion should never have occurred.
If he/she racked his/her head hard enough to sustain a concussion, the helmet in fact did it's job. I'm quite certain that if this person were not wearing a helmet, and whacked their head hard enough to sustain a concussion, they would have sustained injuries that were much more severe.
Would a better helmet have prevented the concussion? Only one way to know for sure and I'm not going to be the volunteer. I've destroyed two helmets whilst using them for what they were designed for, and both times, the helmet came apart, my head did not. One of the episodes left me with a mild concussion. Without the helmet it's possible that I wouldn't be typing this message. Chevy vans are not as forgiving as they appear.