We used to wear helmets whenever we rode after witnessing a fatality on the Great Victorian Bike Ride when we were teenagers.

Dude had his helmet hanging on his handlebars, came off at speed and skidded on his head. When the Ambos came (they weren’t called Paramedics back then), he was still alive, but his brain was exposed.

We never wore our high-vis vests though, they were loose and would droop off our shoulders and we would get tangled.

There was also the story about the dad so was fooling around with his kids bike without a helmet in the back yard; fell over, cracked his head and died instantly; (plausible, but unproven).

I’d be dead a few times if it wasn’t for my bike helmet.

It always amazes me how more helmet-pushers claim to have had their lives saved that the total of all cyclists to die from non-collision head injuries (as cycle helmets aren’t intended or tested for collisions) since bikes was invented.

Yeah helmets are excellent for cycling sports like road racing or downhill mtb, situations where the crash is caused by something below the bike and you go over the bars head first. They don’t make much of a difference in most cases when you’re being hit or going under an automobile at speed.