["Followup-To:" header set to alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent.]
On 5 Jan 2006 12:19:15 -0800, NYC XYZ wrote:

My suspicions precisely, though I also have to agree that they "can't
hurt."

Then I suspect you haven't read a great deal of the research.

There are reasonably foreseeable mechanisms by which they could hurt
(if, by that, you mean make the net injury in a given incident more
serious than were the party involved not wearing a helmet). There are
a number of easily foreseeable mechanisms by which they could make
average net injury per mile cycled worse.

Some of the statistical evidence suggests that they do (on average)
'hurt'. Quite a bit of the statistical evidence suggests they 'hurt'
when compulsion is introduced.

Or they might indeed not hurt, but it's not valid to say that they
can't help but be better than not wearing a helmet.

regards, Ian SMith
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