Helmet safety is a major issue of contentment in North America. Whether the issue is motorcycle helmet safety and a biker's right to choose, bicycle helmet safety, football helmet safety or hockey helmet safety. Consider first the safety of bicycle helmets and then weigh these facts in with motor bike helmet safety.

Facts On Bike Helmet Safety

According to the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute, among the 85 million bicyclists in the United States, 784 died in 2005 from collisions and 720 of that number died because of direct contact with motor vehicles. In addition, over half a million bicyclists have to visit emergency rooms every year, some 67,000 with serious head injuries and 27,000 requiring hospitalization. This is also combined with the fact that most bicycle crashes are actually under-reported, since most people prefer to walk away from a minor fall where no one was seriously injured. Estimates believe that many brain injuries and fatalities could be prevented if bicyclists wore safety helmets. Half of the deaths reported were of children under the age of 15.

Motor bike helmet product safety is an even larger issue, because motorcycles travel at high speeds, making a direct or even indirect collision much harder to walk away from alive. Helmet safety is questioned here however, by experienced bikers who claim that they have the right not to wear a piece of headgear for helmet safety – namely because it's distracting and bulky, and thus may cause what the biker is trying to avoid! Helmet safety is a major issue and should not be ignored when shopping for a new helmet, even at the expense of your wallet.

Helmet Safety Ratings

But how does one learn about helmet safety? Are DOT approved helmets (officially recommended by the U.S. government) signs of high motorcycle helmet safety standards? Not necessarily. In fact, DOT has some of the lowest standards throughout the world in actual helmet protection quality. The Snell Foundation seal of approval is valued much higher by motorcycle enthusiasts. Snell's label is a more demanding safety review of cycling helmets, from motorcycle riders, to bicyclists to horseback riders and racers. Not only do some riders prefer Snell certification on a helmet than a DOT-approved standard, many states in the U.S. too choose Snell's high standards as a suitable safety helmet.

More information is available from the bike helmet safety institute at Helmets.org while more bicycle helmet safety standards are available at the Snell website at smf.org.