Expert Witness Blog
Bicycle expert witnesses may write reports and opine on bicycle safety, bicycle accidents, and bicycle helmets. In Precious Protection, Bicycling.com writes on helmets:
Helmet designers have learned a lot in 60 years. You might notice that, for instance, the sides of your lid have more material, because, according to Thom Parks, vice president of corporate a! airs at Bell Sports, scientists know that, “Getting hit from the side is more likely to concuss than from the front or rear.” He also says that helmets are designed to protect against impacts to the temporal bone “above and to the rear of the eye, which is the thinnest part of the skull and more easily broken.”
These are just a few of the examples of how modern helmets are far safer than those from even a decade ago. Further proof that helmets are safe: Don’t wear one and you die. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), since 1998 thousands of people have died in bicycle accidents, more than 90 percent of whom weren’t wearing helmets. In 2008, IIHS stats show that 714 cyclists were killed. Only 58 of those cyclists were wearing helmets. The rest, 656, were lidless.
Read more: bicycling.com.