Ask 1.1-million-mile BMW rider Dave Swisher, of Bowling Green, Virginia. That’s Dave’s helmet after he suffered a crash in West Virginia. Dave came out just fine⎯thanks to his full-face helmet. No facial reconstruction was needed. In fact, because of his full helmet, Dave was able to ride home!
What would have happened had Dave been wearing a ¾ or open-face helmet or, worse yet, a shorty or ½ helmet?
The diagrams above show the impact areas on crash-involved motorcycle helmets. (Source: Dietmar Otte, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Abteilung Verkehrsunfallforschung, Germany.)Note that 35% of all crashes showed impacts in the chin-bar area. This means that if you ride with an open-face or ¾ helmet you are accepting only 65% of the protection that could be available to your head. If you ride with a shorty or ½ helmet, you are accepting only 39% of the protection you could have obtained!
And, of course, if you ride wearing a “novelty” helmet or no helmet at all then you have none of the protection you could have chosen.





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