"but , in near 40 years of riding dirt and road and having seen and experienced myself some really bad crashes involving hitting the ground quite hard , I have never actually seen a helmet actually let go"

True that. I qualified that statement by saying what I witnessed during my drag racing days. To give a timeframe, that was when you'd have to turbo or blower a 1000cc to get what we consider nomal.
It's an argument that neither side can convince the other of. I ride with folks that dont use a helmet and tease me mercilessly. One of them,a newbie cruiser rider ,fell, following her BF passing on a mountain road.Scratched up her face,;lost a tooth or two, broke a cheekbone, did the hospital stay. When she was able to ride again, she will still not wear one..ok, if that doesnt convince ya, I'll shut up. This is an otherwise intelligent person, IT engineer all that...
Whther I have to or not ,I wear it. I like not having to and agree with that part.
Ya spends yo dime,and ya takes yo chances

 

We already do. You have vehicle insurance? Your premiums are paying for Jimmy's life support. You have health insurance? Your premiums are paying for the nurse that changes Jimmy's diaper. You have life insurance? Your premiums are paying for Jimmy's funeral

The majority of our premiums are for when someone else collects on their coverage. That's the nature of insurance. TBH I'd prefer the pennies in added income tax over the dollars in added monthly premiums any day

 

engrish much? I can't tell if you're pro or anti gear, though I thought you were pretty anti judging by the pics.

EDIT: And I'm not meaning that to come across as an attack, though I'm pretty sure you know where I stand on the gear thing

 

Last stats I could find were 2006 and average speed on impact was around 30mph (29.something to be exact). The over 86mph crash was over 1 in a thousand event.

SO ...

At 0 to 40mph you all know that a helmet will keep your head giblets from splattering all over the place and keep us high tax payers from supporting your stupid asses for the rest of your drooling life.

 

I think this guy was still in one piece at least externally was because if the truck as stated was traveling at the speed limit and he was doing 120+ total impact to his body would be about 65 MPH or to make that real just over 88 feet per second(somebody check my math) not enough to tear him up but enough to stop his clock. I noticed that he was also wearing all the gear,helmet, body armor, his footgear probably got lost on impact or during the time he got dragged. If the bike went past the trucker it tore up at impact and the resulting crash as it moved on. From the look of the bike, it may have gone under the truck - notice the front end,gas tank damage - and come out under a side of it.the bike didnt stop.the unfortunate rider did.
And the dad wants to take our bikes for speeding.And the kid had been drinking?lots of things went wrong before this guy hit that truck.
To our discussion, the helmet is not majic. It will keep you alive in most instances or with a mitigated issue of head injury. We know the worst accidents are not falling off,but hitting something.That changes the game. Anybody heard of straws being imbedded in trees during a hurricane or tornado? Or the guy who thought he could survive hurricane wind speeds and tied himself to a tree during one to prove it. He was right. But he forgot about the Volvo and pieces of houses that were IN the wind...probably the Volvo that did it...

 

True. A high impact will tear your brain away from the inside of your skull, whether the skull stays in one piece or not. It's called a "closed head injury" and it is the most common.

 

Good observation there Grendl.......very good ( and I have a Hurricane & a Volvo )

looks about right for a 55 mph moving impact going in the same direction......
it's the trailer floor that crushed that poor guys neck/chest/spine and is why the
helmet stayed mostly intact but it did break the rear door panel so most likely
there was "closed head injury" as Joe stated too.

You could say I've seen a few bike wrecks in the course of my work
(I do some LE accident reconstruction on occasion relative to mapping
and measurements etc).......'nuff said

Wear a Helmet.

 

There was a Jay Leno and Arai video posted here a bit ago talking about why it's not as big of an issue if you just drop your helmet. It's like you give it extra momentum by having your head in it so if you just drop the helmet on its own, the impact is only as much as the 3-4 pounds your helmet weighs as opposed to having the absorb double (or in my case possibly triple) that weight's impact.

 

Hey , Did we ever figure out the definition of NGA?