Helmets & Helmet Laws

This section contains research related to the effectiveness of helmets and helmets laws. This introduction also contains links to documents which are intended to help readers build a solid base for understanding the depth and breadth of the helmet and helmet law research.

Contrary to most other motorcyclist safety topics where the available research is limited or nonexistent, there is an extensive amount of research regarding helmet use and helmet laws.  We have posted only a small fraction of what is available and have divided the research into categories to make it easier to locate and access specific topics. Check the grid below to view the subtopic headings.

All valid research clearly demonstrates the benefit of wearing a helmet.  Motorcycle helmets save lives and prevent devastating and debilitating head injuries.  Every reputable safety research organization in the world supports the use of helmets as a way to reduce injury, death, and economic costs resulting from brain trauma.  For decades, hundreds of researchers representing distinguished organizations have researched the topics of the effectiveness of helmets and all-rider helmet law’s.   Meticulous reviews of the literature have concluded that the research clearly demonstrates the lifesaving benefits of wearing a helmet, and that all-rider helmet laws are the only research proven effective strategy for reducing motorcyclist fatalities.  Therefore, All-rider Helmet Use Requirements are enacted as a proven method for increasing helmet use. Those facts are not only clear but overwhelming and undeniable.

Motorcycle helmets were worn by racers as early as the 1920’s and the early age of advocacy for motorcycle-helmet use dates back to May 1935, when the World War I hero Col. T. E. Lawrence, popularly known as Lawrence of Arabia, suffered a traumatic brain injury in a motorcycle crash and subsequently died from his injuries. The British neurosurgeon Sir Hugh William Bell Cairns, who treated Lawrence, felt the injury might have been avoided if Colonel Lawrence had been wearing a protective crash helmet. Based on his research on head injuries and deaths among army motorcyclists during the Second World War, Cairns concluded that adoption of a crash helmet as standard wear by all motorcyclists would save considerable lives, lost working time, and hospital resources.

An excellently referenced report by Melissa Neiman, MD, JD provides an overview of the history of helmet use and helmet laws in the US, a review of morbidity and mortality data related to helmet use, a brief review of helmet construction and standards, the costs associated with motorcycle crashes and the relationship to helmet use, a description of the arguments against all-rider helmet laws, the authors statement of the need for all-rider laws, an examination of the status of the argument (as of the writing of her report), and her conclusion regarding the best way to achieve increased helmet use.

The history of motorcycle helmet legislation in the United States reflects the extent to which concerns about individual liberties have shaped the public health debate.  Despite overwhelming evidence that motorcycle helmet use and all-rider helmet laws reduce fatalities and serious injuries, efforts to enact or maintain all-rider helmet laws have faltered, and motorcyclists’ rights advocacy groups have been successful at repealing state helmet laws. In addition to providing an excellent historical background regarding helmet use and helmet laws Paternalism and its Discontents focuses on how libertarian and anti-paternalistic values impact our public health policy.