A study of helmet damage and rider head-neck injuries for crash involved motorcyclists : Road Safety Bureau CrashLab Research Note 5/88

Helmets are currently the most effective countermeasures to serious injury available to motorcyclists. In New South Wales observational surveys of riders in city and rural towns have indicated that more than 97% of motorcyclists wear helmets. If the performance of motorcycle helmets can be improved than that can be fairly easily translated into reduced injuries to motorcyclists in road crashes. When the Australian Standard for motorcycle helmets was first implemented, it appeared to incorporate the best of all known Standards and as such, was probably the best in the world. Over the last ten years it has undergone little change. One of the main reasons given for this has been the lack of Australian research data into the performance of currently available helmets and the potential performance of helmets with improved protection. This study set out to resolve these criticisms by evaluating the in-crash performance of motorcycle helmets, with particular aim of finding areas where there was potential for further protection from injury.