LIFE-SAVING CRASH HELMETS
How headgear limits injuries and saves lives during small falls and serious crashes
Injury to the head is the leading cause of death in motorcycle crashes, but wearing a helmet reduces the chances of sustaining such an injury by 65 per cent. In many countries, it’s against the law to ride a motorcycle without a crash helmet. Motorcyclists are much more exposed to the hazards of the road because they aren’t contained within the steel shell of a car, so their heads need direct protection.
Helmets protect the brain and head during a crash by cushioning the impact. The human brain controls a person’s thoughts, memories, emotions and even their movement and ability to ride a motorcycle in the first place. Motorcycle crashes commonly result in traumatic brain injuries, which is the term given to a sudden and violent impact on the brain. This can be in the form of a temporary concussion, sometimes causing the rider to lose consciousness for any time from a few minutes to a few hours and often leading to temporary confusion and disorientation. Other brain injuries are much more severe and reduce a person’s mobility for life. Motorcyclists are four times as likely as car passengers to suffer a road injury.
Helmets are essential in lowering these injury statistics. The type and thickness of the material is chosen to reduce the impact forces that are transferred to the brain. If the helmet retains some of the impact energy that’s produced in a collision, the movement of the skull inside the helmet is reduced, as is that of the brain in the skull.