Damaged Helmets: 15 Photos and the Evidence They Save Lives

Does a helmet really make a difference? The research says yes. A Cochrane systematic review of motorcycle crashes found that helmets cut the risk of head injury by about 69 percent and the risk of death by about 42 percent. For cyclists, the evidence consistently shows fewer serious head injuries among helmet wearers, and for skiers and snowboarders, helmets lower the rate of head injuries too.

Statistics are easy to skim past, though. A cracked or scraped helmet makes the same point in a way you feel. The fifteen photographs below were posted online between roughly 2013 and 2017 by riders, friends, shop workers, doctors and a police department, each showing a helmet that took a blow so that a head did not have to. They cover motorcycles, bicycles, skiing, skateboarding, a building site and a police operation. A photo cannot prove exactly what would have happened without the helmet, and most of these stories come only from the person who posted them, but together they show what the gear is built to do. Some images show minor blood or injuries.

How a helmet protects your head

Most helmets have two main layers. A hard outer shell spreads the force of a blow and resists sharp objects and road surfaces. Underneath, a thick liner of expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam crushes on impact. By crushing, it makes your head slow down over a slightly longer distance and time, which lowers the peak force on the brain. The shell may look intact while the foam inside is compressed, so a helmet is designed to absorb one serious crash and then be retired.

Full-face motorcycle helmets add a chin bar, and that matters: a well-known crash study by Dietmar Otte found major impacts on the chin-bar area in about 35 percent of crashes. Newer designs such as MIPS also add a low-friction layer to reduce rotational forces, which current bicycle standards do not fully test.

Motorcycle helmets that met the road

1. A full-face helmet worn flat by the asphalt

A whole patch of the shell on this blue and white full-face helmet has been ground away, leaving a rough, sanded circle. That is what sliding on asphalt does, and it shows why riders also wear abrasion-resistant jackets and gloves. The image was shared on Imgur with a blunt warning to "wear a helmet." imgur

3. An Arai helmet after a tree

This Arai full-face helmet hit a tree face-first. The rider wrote on the EatSleepRide community that doctors told him the full-face design was the reason his face and jaw came out largely unhurt, with only a sprained neck, and that neither the shell nor the visor broke. The blood on the chin area is a sobering reminder of how close it was. eatsleepride

4. Deep scratches across a visor

Long white gouges run across the visor and chin of this black Harley-Davidson helmet, which the owner posted on Reddit as a "daily reminder." The scratches line up with where the rider's face would have been. Visors are tested for impact and penetration, but they are still worth replacing after any crash. Ketameme69

7. A hole worn through the shell

Here the abrasion went right through the outer shell and into the layer beneath. The helmet was shared on Twitter with the simple message that helmets save lives. Without it, that wear would have been on skin and skull. seancoker

10. Scraped half helmet

Dense white scratches cover the top of this glossy black Harley-Davidson half helmet. Half helmets protect the crown of the head but leave the face and jaw exposed, which is why safety bodies recommend full-face designs where possible. The photo was tweeted as a reminder that helmets can save lives. kayvanwey

13. Two full-face helmets, two slides

Both of these full-face helmets show broad scuffs across the shell and visor, the typical pattern of a rider tumbling and sliding along a road. The owner said they kept looking at them and felt speechless at how much the helmet had protected them, adding a reminder to always wear your gear. Evauk_Folfy

15. After hitting a deer

The rider of this matte black half helmet said they hit a deer; the bike was destroyed but they survived. The scrapes show the shell and foam taking the impact with the road. Collisions with deer are a serious risk for motorcyclists in rural North America, especially at dawn and dusk in autumn. MaherShelli

Bicycle and skateboard crashes

5. A cyclist into a windshield

The poster said a car turning left hit them and threw them into its windshield. The top photo shows the cracked bicycle helmet; the lower one shows the starred windshield and the bike under the car's front wheel. Bicycle helmets are less protective in crashes with motor vehicles than in simple falls, but even here the helmet clearly took a heavy blow. JAB_3_

8. A road helmet split apart

A white road-cycling helmet, broken into pieces, sits in what looks like a clinic storeroom. The person who posted it said they had no doubt it saved a friend from serious head injury or death. The split foam is the helmet doing its job: breaking so the skull does not. TriDocB

12. A skateboarder's helmet, and a scraped knee

Someone holds a cracked red and black skate helmet while the young rider lies on a hospital trolley in the background with a grazed knee. The Reddit post was a lesson for kids about why skaters wear helmets. Knees heal; head injuries are another matter. tall_drinkofwater

14. A high-speed crash into a wall

Posted on Twitter by an account that described the rider as "our patient", this blue bicycle helmet is shattered into several pieces after the patient reportedly hit a wall at around 80 km/h, a speed that cyclists can reach on long descents. Helmet standards test at far lower impact speeds, so surviving a crash like this involves luck as well as the helmet. BritNordicWalk

On the snow

9. A ski helmet cracked open

A large crack runs from the top of this dark green snow helmet down toward the ear. The poster shared it as a reminder to wear a helmet on the slopes. Research suggests that most head injuries on snow come from hitting the snow surface itself, not just trees or other skiers. AustralianSituation

11. Brought into a ski shop

According to the Imgur post, a customer walked into a ski gear shop with this helmet and goggles after a crash, and a friend working there took the photo. Ski helmets are tested at roughly 20 to 23 km/h, while skiers often travel twice as fast, so they reduce head injuries but cannot make every collision survivable. Slowing down near trees and other people still matters. DavidBowiesBulgeInLabyrinth

Hard hats and police helmets

2. A steel plate stopped by a hard hat

On a muddy building site, a metal bracket has punched into a yellow hard hat and stuck there. Construction hard hats are built to a different standard from road helmets, designed mainly to stop falling objects, and this one did. The post on Reddit's r/pics used it to make the point that helmets are worth wearing at all times. gijsr

6. The Orlando SWAT officer's helmet

Orlando police shared this photo of a Kevlar helmet after the Pulse nightclub attack on 12 June 2016, in which 49 people were killed and dozens more wounded. SWAT officer Michael Napolitano was struck in the head during the final confrontation with the gunman; his helmet took the bullet and he survived with cuts and bruises to his forehead. Military and police helmets use layers of aramid fibre rather than foam to stop projectiles. 53045248437532743874

Choosing and caring for a helmet

• Use the right helmet for the activity. Bicycle, motorcycle, ski, skate and work helmets are tested for different kinds of impacts. Look for a recognised certification such as DOT, ECE 22.06 or Snell for motorcycles, EN 1078 or the U.S. CPSC standard for bicycles, and EN 1077 for skiing.
• Fit matters. A helmet should sit level, low on the forehead, and not rock when you shake your head, with the strap snug under the chin. Studies have found that many children and teenagers wear helmets incorrectly fitted, which reduces protection.
• Replace after a crash. Even if the shell looks fine, the foam may already be crushed. Manufacturers also recommend replacing helmets as they age.
• Buy from reputable sellers. Counterfeit helmets sold online may look identical but fail basic tests.
• Take children's helmets off at the playground. Straps can catch on equipment.

Helmets are not a licence to take bigger risks, and they work best alongside safe speeds, visible clothing and good roads. But as these photographs show, when something does go wrong, a few hundred grams of plastic and foam can be the difference between a bad day and a life-changing one. For a different example of small safety design, see Why Some Pen Caps Have Ventilation Holes.

Sources: Wikipedia: Motorcycle helmet (Cochrane review, Otte study, construction); Wikipedia: Bicycle helmet (evidence, standards, fit); Wikipedia: Ski helmet (effectiveness and test speeds); Wikipedia: 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting; FOX 13, 14 June 2016: Helmet takes brunt of bullets for Orlando SWAT officer; collection first compiled by Bored Panda. Photographs credited to their original posters under each image.