 This is a report about an important study that was conducted in the city of Los Angeles over a two-and-one-half-year period. The basic objectives of the study were to determine what factors human, vehicle, and environmental caused or contributed to motorcycle accidents and to identify the effectiveness of the safety helmet in the prevention or reduction of head injury. In the Los Angeles area, there are about 2,500 motorcycle accidents reported each year with an average of 45 fatalities. The characteristics of these motorcycle accidents are essentially the same as other motorcycle accidents anyplace else in the United States. The study was sponsored by the United States Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and was accomplished by the University of Southern California Traffic Safety Center Motorcycle Accident Research. The U.S.C. Accident Investigation Teams were scheduled 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so that all kinds of motorcycle accidents could be investigated. All research team members were specialists in human factors, interviewing, engineering, and all were motorcycle riders themselves. This motorcycle experience was a special ingredient of the research team, so that all elements crucial to motorcycles and riders would be included in the data accurately. Cooperation was established with the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles Fire Department, and the offices of the California Highway Patrol in the study area. In responding to an accident notification, time was critical. The automobile was usually still drivable, and the driver uninjured and able to drive away from the scene. A motorcycle, even though damaged, is easily moved off the roadway. An injured rider might soon be en route to an emergency hospital, so it was important upon arrival to find out where everyone would be going so that a follow-up of the vehicles and people could be made. Meantime, every piece of information that could be collected at the scene was gathered and recorded on pre-coded data forms. Because significant skid marks and accident debris are rapidly modified and degraded by traffic, information based on them had to be gathered fast. Photography was the principal means of recording the vehicle, environmental, and human factors data elements for later analysis. It was found that 51% of the accidents were caused by a driver who did not see the motorcycle before the collision, or did not see the motorcycle until too late to avoid the collision. Although about 50% of the motorcycle population on the streets were using helmets, it was found that 60% of the accident riders were not wearing safety helmets at the time of the accident. The man who headed up the USC motorcycle accident research team as the principal investigator was Professor Harry Hurt. A detailed examination of all accident-involved helmets was crucial to this study. The Safety Helmet Council of America members, Bell, American Sports, Electrofilm, Arthur Fulmer, Shoei, they donated helmets for the accident-involved motorcycle rider. In this way, we can ask the rider to donate his lucky helmet to medical science, and we could replace it. There are about 400 helmets here, and every one of them was on the head of a motorcyclist when he or she had an accident. But what are the reasons for not wearing a helmet? Of the 900 cases down to computer file, 26% said it was uncomfortable or inconvenient. 7% because of excessive cost. 6% thought helmets reduced traffic awareness or could cause injury. But the main problem was that 53% of those not wearing helmets just did not ever expect to be in an accident, especially when it was just a short trip. They just didn't think it was going to happen to them. Our data show that most motorcycle accidents are associated with a short ride, and that the accident occurs within just a few minutes after departure. In these studies, we're able to determine exactly how a helmet performs in a crash. All of the accidents and events are completely determined. The helmet is disassembled, and a shell, a liner, and a retention system are thoroughly examined for crash performance. We want to know the effect of helmet coverage. Did it stay on during the crash? Was it a highly qualified helmet or just a SWAT meat special? Did the helmet contribute in any way to accident causation or accident injuries? Was color, weight, material, shape, or fit a factor in helmet effectiveness? We have collected complete injury data and precisely related that information the helmet used. Jim Oled is in charge of data collection, and he can show you actual accidents where the helmet performance was examined. Like all the members of the USC Motorcycle Accident Research Team, Jim Oled is highly qualified for the job. As well as being a motorcycle rider, he has extensive training and experience to cover all areas of vehicle dynamics and performance. Skids, tires, speed analysis, anatomy, physiology, injury mechanisms, helmet technology, and helmet analysis. What I'm going to show you are actual cases that we investigated. This is a diagram to show us the overall accident situation. Here's a slow-moving line of cars, and here's our motorcycle. The rider's late for work. The motorcycle crosses the center stripe to get past the slow traffic. The lead car makes a left turn to a private driveway just as the motorcycle passes, and the motorcycle collides at the driver's door. The rider is thrown forward, flexes over the left aid pillar, and strikes his head on the lower windshield. Then, he vaults across the hood, strikes the curb edge at the left side of the roadway with the right rear portion of his helmeted head, and tumbles into the bushes at the roadside. The helmet comes off in the bushes, and the rider suffers a cut on his scalp. The head and neck injuries were a lacerated scalp and a mild concussion, but the rider was conscious and lucid during follow-up to the hospital. The motorcycle speed at impact was 35 miles per hour. The motorcycle shows damaged front forks with the handlebars rotated forward caused by the rider vaulting. There's a large dent in the gas tank from the rider's left knee. The car shows impact from the motorcycle with damage most obvious on the left door. Note the windshield fracture caused by impact of the rider's head. The left side of the helmet shows damage to the shell and compression of the liner from the rider's head impact with the windshield. The right side of the helmet shows severe impact compression of foam and corresponding damage to the shell caused by the rider's head impact to the curb after vaulting clear of the car. This impact would very likely have caused fatal injury if the helmet had not been worn. Here's a view of the inside of the helmet shell. Note the numerous impact caused delaminations. The delamination to the right and below the 21 tab is from the curb impact. This slide also shows the helmet ears delaminating and coming apart. Here's a view of the inside of the styrofoam helmet liner showing a lot of sissy bar damage, nicks and dings from carrying the helmet on the sissy bar. Note that the liner is deformed. Curb impact to the right rear of the helmet shown at the lower left in this photo has distorted the entire liner in the impact region. The conclusion was obvious. Wearing a helmet saved that rider's life. We have a similar case where the rider was not wearing a helmet. Here's some of the factors contributing to this accident. The motorcycle rider was late for work just as in the first case and passes the car on the left just as it makes a left turn into a private driveway. The motorcycle collides with the left front fender, deflects and falls to the pavement. The rider slides on his chest and back, hits the left curb and slides in the gutter to a stop. The left side of the car shows damage from motorcycle impact. The forward location of the damage and the absence of damage to the roof line of the car indicates no contribution of the car structures to the rider's head injury. The impacted right side of the motorcycle shows damage to the engine and seat. The seat is lifted up in the photo. The rider's unused helmet was attached to the helmet hook and not his head, so it provided very good protection for the right rear shock absorber and turn signal. The head neck injuries were comminuted fractures of both parietal and temporal bones, the occipital and basal regions, contusions of the brain and scattered subarachnoid hemorrhage. In other words, the rider was dead on scene. The investigation disclosed that his excuse for not wearing his helmet had just washed his hair and was letting the wind dry it while riding. In these cases, Jim Olett described the wearing of a helmet or not wearing of a helmet can make all the difference, and this was proved time and time again. The two and a half years' research involving 1,100 on-scene in-depth accident investigations proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the use of a safety helmet is the single critical factor in the prevention or reduction of head injury. An important part of the accident study was to determine the precrage speeds and directions for the motorcycle and the other vehicle. This was done by establishing the precrage line of sight from the motorcycle rider to the other vehicle and recording it as a clock-based direction. For example, let's consider the situation at an intersection where an automobile in the opposing traffic is just beginning to turn left in front of a motorcycle. In this case, a typical precrage line of sight from the motorcycle to the automobile would be approximately 11 o'clock. Of all those motorcycle accidents involving another vehicle, our study showed that 43.5% had an 11 o'clock precrage line of sight. 16.8% of the hazards were straight ahead at 12 o'clock. Another 16.8% of the hazards had a precrage line of sight at 1 o'clock. These three positions add up to a total of 77.1% on a 24-hour day basis. Dawn, dusk, day-night, rain or shine. So the message here is, motorcycle rider, watch where you're going because at least three-fourths of all the accident hazards are right in front of you. Wearing a helmet does not reduce peripheral vision either, contrary to some beliefs. Peripheral vision tests show that people have approximately 180-degree field of normal vision. Helmet standards require at least 210 degrees to prevent restricting normal peripheral vision. Not one instance of helmet obstruction of vision was discovered during this research. There was no case where the helmet limited peripheral vision and contributed to accident causation. Also remember that there are hardly ever any precrage lines of sight that demand great amounts of peripheral visual space. The peripheral fields are not real important in hazard detection. Just look at the percentages. 7.4 and 6% for 10 and 2 o'clock. 2.7 and 0.8 for 9 and 3. 8, 4 and 5 o'clock precrage lines of sight have the lowest percentages of accidents, with 0.3, 0.4 and 0.8% respectively. Another 1.3% of the hazards occurred at the 7 o'clock position. The disasters coming at the bike rider from directly behind him are only 3.2%. It's best to worry most about the 77% ahead than the 3% behind. The problems of rider vision were investigated thoroughly in this research. There were absolutely no problems about helmets, face shields, goggles or glasses, except when they were not used. 46% of the accident-involved riders had nothing to protect their eyes and preserve vision. The typical 30-mile-hour wind blast on the unprotected eyes would cause tearing, squinning, accommodation, which will adversely affect vision. And the rider can't distinguish all those important things that say that car is going to turn left in front of him. During a motorcycle crash, the rider doesn't always hit on his head, but he does most of the time. And when he does, a helmet is the only available means to prevent serious and fatal injuries. A typical motorcycle accident involves a motorcycle rider falling on his head and shoulder from 5 or 6 feet. This is just exactly what a good helmet is designed to take. Actually, it can do much, much more. If he goes into a car, it turns in front of him, then falls on his shoulder and the side of his head from 5 or 6 feet. Well, dropping a watermelon or an unprotected head on the pavement gives the same effect. What about injuries attributed to safety helmets themselves? Only 4 cases out of 900 attributed injuries to safety helmets, and these were all band-aid-type injuries. However, every one of these 4 was associated with an adjacent, life-threatening impact which was attenuated by the helmet. Two cases involve minor injuries to the soft tissue of the nose. This is because both the riders were wearing eyeglasses and helmets that were too large for them. The helmets rotated forward, pushing their eyeglasses into their faces. In each case, the helmet attenuated head impact and protected the rider against a severe or serious level injury. The third helmet-associated injury resulted in a minor abrasion to the lower region of the jaw. This was caused by severe retention force in the chin strap when multiple impacts occurred on the helmet. In other words, the tremendous stress on the helmet caused the chin strap to abrade the soft skin in that region. On the other hand, the helmet distributed or attenuated the impacts efficiently to protect the rider against a critically or possibly a fatal injury. The fourth helmet-associated injury was a minor abrasion to the skin at the back of the neck when the rider fell to the pavement head-first. He over-braked for a traffic problem, then skidded and vaulted high-side to land on his left shoulder and the left side of his head. The impact rotated the head and neck to the right and the edge of the helmet rubbed some skin on his neck. Do helmets cause neck injuries? The answer is no. The typical helmet does not cause neck injuries. The medical data show that helmeted riders have less neck injuries. The helmet weight could cause a whiplash type of injury, but the more usual situation is that the helmet absorbs an impact to the head. Then the neck gets less extension of flexion from that impact. Helmeted riders were 40% of the accidents, but they got less than their share of neck injuries, 32.7%. And heavy helmets don't cause injuries either. The heavier helmet is usually the full-facial coverage helmet, which covers more and protects better. The data show no adverse effect to the larger helmet, which gives more complete head and face coverage. Full-facial coverage helmets show the lowest incidence of head and neck injuries, and it can save you good looks, too. The more body coverage you have, that includes boots, jackets, gloves, and full-facial coverage helmets, the greater the reduction in injuries of all kinds. It is better to wear any kind of helmet rather than nothing at all. An exception to that rule is a cheap polycarbonate shell helmet, which is susceptible to solvents and cracking. It can crack and shatter before the liner can act to absorb the shot. This was worn by a young girl passenger on a motorcycle. During the crash, she fell on her head and hit the left side of her helmet here. The helmet shell cracked, and the helmet came off, allowing severe head injury. Generally, the fiberglass shell helmets are superior because the head-laminated fiberglass will not shatter and split. Instead, it delaminates upon impact and absorbs energy along with the liner. Partial coverage helmets, like this one, are most frequently not retained in impact, and they offer the least protection. There was no evidence that fatigue of any kind caused any of the accidents in the research study. How long does it take to get fatigued? One hour? Two hours? This research shows that 95% of the accidents occurred within the first hour of riding. 50% occurred in the first six minutes. Fatigue, with or without a helmet, is not a factor in these accidents. The studies also showed that for a helmeted as well as unhelmeted riders, hearing has little to do with the detection of traffic hazards. Vision predominates. Some car drivers park by ear, but vision and attention are the critical factors in driving tasks. The USC, two-year on-scene in-depth study of motorcycle accidents and injuries, has made a strong case for the helmet. What else does a biker need to know? Make yourself and your bike as conspicuous as possible. Get a bright yellow or orange jacket. Run the headlamp on all the time. Don't hide among other vehicles in traffic. Don't ever assume that other cars can see you. Learn how to use both brakes hard and fast. Learn how to swerve quick. And get ready at any intersection. Watch out where you're going. That's where most of the accidents are coming from. Stay attentive. Stay away from any kind of boos. That's where half of the fatal accidents come from. Any motorcycle rider needs a good helmet and good eye protection, even for short rides. Helmets are very good for your health. Research shows that safety helmets are the only thing between you and disaster. These researchers have collected the cold hard facts of motorcycle accidents. Motorcycle accident, motorcycle fatal, all home in San Diego Freeway, corner on scene at 2335. When a motorcycle rider is involved in an accident, he is most likely going to hit his head on something. Safety helmets don't cause accidents or hurt riders. Safety helmets always help prevent or reduce head and neck injuries to motorcycle riders. Cold hard facts.