With the plethora of options you have in the market these days, choosing motorcycle helmets is quite a task in itself. It would be easy if it was simply a matter of choosing color and size, but heck, they come in various shapes, styles and brands, fit and feel is different and the most important – what safety regulations do they adhere to! In a bid to raise awareness about helmets and promote their usage, today we will talk about some important facts and a few myths associated with them.
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First of all, let’s see some facts and try to answer why you should always wear a motorcycle helmet?
- Fact 1: Head injuries are the leading factor of deaths in motorcycle accidents.
- Fact 2: Helmets are 30% more effective in preventing fatalities or head injuries.
- Fact 3: Rider who is not wearing a helmet is 40% more likely to be killed, in an unfortunate accident.
- Fact 4: A motorcyclist is 32 times more likely to be killed than the car driver.
- Fact 5: After an accident average hospital costs will be 3-4 times higher, if you weren’t wearing a helmet.
And the thing is – when wearing a helmet isn’t mandated (or vigorously practiced) by the law, less than 20% of people actually wear it in India. Enough of scary facts, but more importantly, we want to take your attention to some myths that prevent you from wearing a helmet while astride a bike!
Myth 1: Helmets Reduce Your Vision
Untrue! Well it may be just partially true for looking down, and only for full-face type helmets. But this is not important in any way. What is important is the peripheral vision, and it is about 180 degrees without a helmet. Helmet standards provide with 210-degree peripheral vision, so helmets do not reduce your important vision in any way…
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Myth 2: Helmets Prevent You from Hearing Traffic Sound
False! Helmets are useful for protecting your hearing from wind noise. Driving faster (say over 100kmph) without a helmet can damage your eardrums over time (not to mention other problems). While helmets lower all noise and sounds, they are not completely eliminating those. Critical traffic sounds are heard very clearly. Actually there were few tests performed for this myth, and all of them proved that rider could always hear all important sounds on the road. And hearing is not the dominant sense for detecting hazards on the road, vision is!
Myth 3: Helmets Overheat your Head
Wrong! Studies have shown that the foam liner inside the helmet acts as an insulator and while outer surface of the helmet may warm up, inside temperature will not rise more than a few degrees. However, while moving at slow speeds air circulation will be low even on the well-ventilated helmets, and it may get hot in there.
But the probable reason for this myth is traffic jams in hot, humid weather (specially in India). Of course you will get all sweaty in the summer, while staying in long traffic jams! – It’s hot outside already and your wearing a full-face helmet (most likely), and in addition there are all other car exhausts nearby. It’s like wearing a winter hat and sitting in front of fireplace in the summer. This isn’t helmet’s fault, it’s circumstances that make you blame the helmet.
Myth 4: You don’t Need a Helmet When Driving Across the City
Wrong again! There is much more risk involved when driving in the city, as opposed to driving in rural areas. There are all those parked cars, light poles, people, curbs and many other objects that are on your way. And in fact, even if you are riding slow, the distance you drop is the same. And it contributes really much to force off the impact. And you can’t control other driver’s behavior either – someone can crash a car into you accidentally, and you will not be prepared whatsoever. So this isn’t true – you must always wear a helmet, or at least as much as possible.
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Myth 5: Riders with Helmets meet with accidents more frequently
Untrue! Research shows that riders who use helmets are less likely to get in any road accidents and surprisingly, bright helmet colors such as white, red or white have even less accident ratio! In fact, all good quality helmets come with reflectors (text or signals) which ensure you become visible in the dark which definitely saves than your bare head!
The whole point is – not to forcefully wear a helmet, but wear it out of choice and interest, to keep yourself safe.
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And the good thing these days is that, in case you do not have time to go out and buy helmets, you can do it at the comfort of your home. You will also have more options to chose from. You can buy from online stores like Flipkart, Amazon, Planet DSG etc.
Amazon India currently has affordable and good quality helmets ranging from LS2, Fastrack and a few others. You can Buy Them NOW
