Remember kids... always wear a helmet. (The almighty bikeradar helmet thread)

Every now and then it does us good to exercise our “helmets and the law” debating skills. Sadly it seems that @eyebrows has left the discussion and is “no longer active” on lfgss.
Presumably he/she has gone back to MRCP revision. Nevertheless I will try to examine some of research links posted by @eyebrows (in separate postings here) in case he/she is looking.

There is a lot to learnt from examining helmet related questions further. I agree with the view of Prof. David Spiegelhalter and Dr. Ben Goldacre that such an examination provides a perfect teaching case for epidemiology. I think their BMJ article is essential reading for anyone seriously interested in the academic research.
http://researchonline.lshtm.ac.uk/989799/1/bmj.f3817.full.pdf

Their short paper highlights what I think are a couple of fundamental truths:

Even if helmets do have an effect on head injury rates,it would not necessarily follow that legislation would have public health benefits overall.

and:

In any case, the current uncertainty about any benefit from helmet wearing or promotion is unlikely to be substantially reduced by further research. Equally, we can be certain that helmets will continue to be debated, and at length. The enduring popularity of helmets as a proposed major intervention for increased road safety may therefore lie not with their direct benefits—which seem too modest to capture compared with other strategies—but more with the cultural, psychological, and political aspects of popular debate around risk.