In July of this year I had an accident on my bike. A car pulled out in front of me while I was doing 30mph. I have no recollection of the accident and only vague memories of the next 9 hours after, but from what I have been told and from the marks on my helmet it looks as though I hit the door pillar behind the driver and then went through the drivers side window (I think I head butted her, as apparently she needed hospital treatment as well) I was taken to hospital with a concussion and I had broken my neck. Luckily(!) it was a stable break of the C1 C2 and T1 and I only had a brief stay in hospital (1 week) and to wear a hard collar for 10 weeks. I had various cuts and bruises all over my body and my face but most people would probably say it was actually an improvement.
I am like a lot of people in that I only wear a helmet because it stops me getting earache from my better half. I have looked at the data and made my own mind up as whether wearing a helmet is a good thing or not. My personal experience actually backs the statistics up, I have been involved in 5 accidents in my riding career and the three serious ones (knackered ankle, torn lower aorta and this one) I have been wearing a helmet. Incidentally, only one of the 5 accidents was my fault, all of the others have been cars hitting me from behind or pulling in front of me! So going by the statistics I should not wear a helmet as even if I have an accident it is unlikley to involve serious injury. The last one though I looked at the helmet and initially thought that as it was cracked it had not worked (despite the world and their dog telling me it had saved my life! Apparently while I was in the first A and E I was debating with the doctor about helmets and I was explaining to him that if they cracked they had not absorbed the energy). It was only a few months later when I was taking some pics of it for another helmet thread that I examined it closer that I could see where the first impact had occured, it has actually absorbed the damage. The front left side was half the thickness of the same part on the other side.
There were a lot of scratches to the exterior of the helmet, mainly to the rear and a lot of glass embedded into the vents. There were also a lot of cracks in the helmet and delamination at the front where i would say the helmet has not absorbed any of the energy and just snapped off. Ironically this is what most people point to and tell me why it has saved my life!
I cant say that it saved my life, I cant for sure say it saved me from a more serious injury, but I think in this instance it has absorbed some of the energy in the crash and this is the first time (in my opinion) a helmet has actually worked as it should for me (albeit not 100%) The other 2 accidents both had cracks or scratches to the helmet but did not absorb the impact.
I will not tell others to wear a helmet and if someone tells me only idiots dont use them, I will tell them that statistically I shouldnt wear one but after this last accident I will be wearing a helmet all the time. But at the end of the day it is up to you to decide.
