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@IvanTheTerrible
The way I see it, youre going up a road, suddenly a car pulls out infront of you without looking, you break, but the momentum plunges your front wheel into the side of the car and you flip over the bonnet.
Now, as you fly through the air, there's 2 possibilities; Possibility 1 is that you will land on your head, possibility 2 is that you manage to land on your back. Possibility 3 is that you are a ninja and will land back on your feet and catch the bike; this case we will ignore.
If you land on your head, your skull will absorb the impact, whilst your neck, the shock. Now think about what will happen to your skull. As you are thinking about it, remember the bicycle helmet is designed to splinter into many pieces as it absorbs the shock. In the end, would you rather have your skull splinter into pieces, or your helmet?
Last of all, the helmet will not absorb ALL of the impact, would be stupid to assume that, granted. It might not even save your life, granted. However, if the helmet can absorb even 50% of the impact, that could mean the difference between getting hit over the head with a sledgehammer or a wooden mallet. Sure, in either case youre going to be f**ked, but at least in the latter case youll be alive with most of your brain/head intact.
Ill go as far and admit, that not everyone is an idiot, you might have years of experience riding a bike. Sure, you might be a pro. But that still doesnt account for the idiot on the other end, the one thats going to turn left without indicating, or the moron VAN who doesnt want to wait in the traffic jam and turns into the alley just as you are undertaking him. Or the idiot who pulls out infront of you looking the opposite way of the traffic. Infact all of the scenarios above happened to me, multiple times, I still have a helmet with half the pain scratched off during my impact on the tarmac. It wasnt a big collision or anything, and I managed to swirve quite quickly, but it did save me a big chunk of my hair.