There is also another benefit of a helmet, it changes how people treat you. They apparently respect cyclists more when they wear a helmet.

I was in a collision a two months ago. The driver hit me on purpose, because I had call him a wanker, he became self defining in this, by swiping me with the rear of his car, thankfully the relative speed difference would have been at most 10mph, so I only had minor injury (three fractures).

The police, who have a job to collect evidence, were not remotely accepting that I was not doing anything wrong. My arm was injured, my head obviously not, so before the ambulance arrived someone had helped me remove it, and clip it to the holder on my bag. Immediately the police were questioning me, asking why I wasn't wearing my helmet when the accident happened.

My head never came close to hitting the ground during the impact.

The fact is that people are very judgemental. Cyclists who wear helmets tend not to be the ones who cycle straight through junctions at red lights whilst smoking a spliff such as the space cadet I saw this Monday the 6th, 9:30am, Highgate.

It was interesting, that despite the obvious location of the collision, A lane that the car should not have been in, the Police were been told off by the paramedics for been hard on me, taking me off gas+air (mild anesthetic) so I could be breathalised for signs of alcohol consumption would be one good example of how I feal they acted poorly. Only after they found my pilots license did the police start to treat me with any dignity or respect, it was frankly shameful, as the other party had already admitted he used his car to injure me to a witness. Best of all, the driver isn't even been charged with assault.

It's just an observation of fact. Facts are known to be biased. If there are studies that show the benefits of bicycle helmet wearing, I'd be interested in seeing them.