Motorcyclists often face an elevated risk of injury when hitting the road due to the small size of their vehicle and lack of protective covering. Because of this, motorcycles often have a reputation for the danger they pose to all riders, sometimes even with the use of proper safety protective gear.
When it comes to skull fractures, just how much help does a helmet actually provide? What do studies say about the safety benefits of these devices often touted as the key to surviving a crash?
Helmets could still be improved
The National Library of Medicine discusses the ways helmets can protect against head injuries like skull fractures. Though they note that helmets do not protect equally against all injury, they also make it a point to drive home one thing: wearing a helmet will always serve a motorcyclist better than going without one.
First, the discrepancy between protections simply serves as a reminder of the fact that the technology behind helmets would still benefit from improvements. Just because they work does not mean innovation should stop; they could still do better.
A helmet is always better than no helmet
But despite that, helmets actually do a very good job at reducing the chance of serious brain injury in most riders. For example, a study showed that skull fractures saw a 69 percent reduction in motorcyclists wearing their helmets. And while intracranial hemorrhaging only saw a 53 percent reduction, cerebral contusion saw a 71 percent reduction.
On top of that, a 53 percent reduction in a rider’s chance of experiencing a hemorrhage is still 53 percent less of a chance than a rider without a helmet would face. Thus, it is always best to put on a helmet when hitting the road.