2manyoranges
Old School Grand Master
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Pazaudi ... this is an interesting study which puts the stats into 'lucky you were wearing a helmet' but looking at 'it's unfortunate that that they weren't wearing a helmet...' warning - slightly gruesome post-mortem images.
There are other badly designed studies which appear to suggest a correlation between death and helmet wearing, but the bad design comes from not factoring the tendency for high frequency, high speed cyclists to wear a helmet. The causal relation here is not helmet wearing causing injury and death but helmets being worn by cyclists prone to frequent high speed and risker cycling. Of course, there is analysis of whether a helmet gives a sense of over confidence - so far, mixed evidence, but favouring helmet wearing. There is this well-designed study:
Cycling fatalities: When a helmet is useless and when it might save your life
Autopsy reports of 119 cyclists who died in two Czech regions between 1995 and 2013 as a result of traffic crashes were studied. In all the study case…
www.sciencedirect.com
There are other badly designed studies which appear to suggest a correlation between death and helmet wearing, but the bad design comes from not factoring the tendency for high frequency, high speed cyclists to wear a helmet. The causal relation here is not helmet wearing causing injury and death but helmets being worn by cyclists prone to frequent high speed and risker cycling. Of course, there is analysis of whether a helmet gives a sense of over confidence - so far, mixed evidence, but favouring helmet wearing. There is this well-designed study:
Bicycle helmets and risky behaviour: A systematic review
A long-standing argument against bicycle helmet use is the risk compensation hypothesis, i.e., increased feelings of safety caused by wearing a helmet…
www.sciencedirect.com