Lostcause, I probably tend to agree with you more than you might think. I'm not at all a safety ****. I just try to dwell on facts and truth when discussing these types of things. Wearing a motorcycle helmet does NOT make a neck injury more likely when you're riding a motorcycle. Might a neck injury kill you? Yes, of course.
I've ridden tens of thousands of miles, on and off road, and still say I am a beginning motorcyclist. If I didn't wear a helmet, the same would be true, and I wouldn't be any better off. Risky behavior can, and will, get people killed, irrespective of protective equipment. This is true whether we're talking about tractors, motorcycles, aircraft, firearms, or whatever other item one chooses. The guy acting stupid is usually the one involved in someone getting hurt; if he hurts himself, he paid the price for his actions. But hurting other people is beyond his purview. I NEVER want someone else to have the right to hurt me because their actions put me at risk.
With motorcycle helmets specifically, it's hard to imagine how not wearing a helmet could put others in danger. I think that the position something along the lines of "Helmet laws should be repealed because adults should have the freedom to choose for themselves the risks they take for themselves" is very defensible on its own, and should be used as the baseline to rationally and honestly carry on this debate.
Saying things like "If you wear a helmet, you're likely to get a broken neck" is both false and misleading according to all of my investigation. In fact, it makes the no-helmet position less defensible, because if these machines are so dangerous even helmets can't help, maybe the government will try to ban ALL of them.
Conversely, it's also misleading to say that "xxxx organization requires such and such a helmet/equipment, so it must be the best and right way to do things." What works for F1 drivers or professional motorcycle racers does not necessarily correlate to me driving on the street, or riding recreationally. That doesn't mean there is no value to their equipment list or specifications, simply that the conditions are different. The last death in Formula 1, Ayrton Senna, was killed when
"...the right front wheel had shot up upon impact and entered the cockpit area where Senna was sitting. It struck the right frontal area of his helmet, and the violence of the wheel痴 impact pushed his head back against the headrest, causing fatal skull fractures. A piece of upright attached to the wheel had partially penetrated his Bell M3 helmet and caused a trauma to his head. In addition, it appeared that a jagged piece of the upright assembly had penetrated the helmet visor just above his right eye."
Wikipedia
I'm not worried about penetrating trauma to my head or my car wheel entering the cockpit and killing me in a crash. On the road to work, what is a potentially lethal threat to me is a 30 mph T-bone crash where someone runs a stoplight or stopsign or another driver swerving to avoid a dog or child and hitting me head-on. The system of injury is different because of conditions.
As you said, on the street wearing a helmet only makes you safer. We aren't racing, or planning to crash. The mindset of a person who decides to ride a motorcycle and gears up first, carefully inspects their machine before, during, and after each ride, has researched their route and road conditions beforehand, takes safety and skills courses and otherwise does everything right is what will keep them safer, vastly more than the equipment itself. Put a helmet on a drunk knucklehead and the best helmet cannot help.
The helmet can help with the sliding and head bonking type injuries that would otherwise be more serious. It's not a panacea for all people in all conditions. We can, though, and should, be as objective as we can, and honestly attempt to assess the risks in everything we do, whether it's picking our diet, exercise habits, companions, behavior, and all other things. This is a good discussion topic, thanks.
