In article , Ed Huntress says...

Sorry for long message to follow.

Don't apologize, I'm going to peruse them in depth when I
get some time.

....

If you don't wear a helmet, you're much more likely to die.

Yep.

If you survive,
you're much more likely to wind up in a hospital.

Yep.

If you wind up in a
hospital, you're going to wind up with a hospital bill much larger than you
would if you had worn a helmet.

Also yep.

That isn't speculation. That's documented by the articles above, plus
research confirmed in dozens of other professional articles published in
medical journals.

Also agree. My SWAG is that the published articles above may have
a hole in them - the subset of crash victims who are *never*admited* to
a hospital, because they're dead at the scene. Statistically more of
those (dare I say "most?") will be those without helmets.

Those riders may never make it into those studies. Because I haven't
inspected them closely, I cannot say for sure - but there may be
a substantial statistical bias introduced by this effect. From my
cursory inspection of a few years ago, the price to pay to be included
in one of those studies was, you had to get one of those wrist tags
that hospitals use to identify patients. You had to have a patient
number and a billing address.

The folks who only got *toe* tags were never included.

Listening to ABATE, and accepting their cherry-picked studies, is a big
mistake.

Ed, I've been riding for many years. I see what abate publishes, and
I think what they do is a travesty. Helmet use for me is a given - but
I don't think that helmet laws (for *adults*, kids are another matter)
are good in general. Folks should be free to splatter their brains
on the pavement at will... especially the dumb ones.

Jim


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