In article ,
Ronaldo Jeremiah wrote:
(Tom Kunich) wrote in message . com...

As a significant comment on the pertinent article - they claim that a
helmet seems to save some 15% of youth fatalities.

An important distinction - they say this about *helmet laws*, not
helmets. The actual effect for helmets themselves may be higher if we
account for noncompliance, which may be substantial in this case (or
not, but still the distinction needs to be made).

Or the effect could be lower. Helmet laws change behavior, especially among
children, there is no doubt about that. If you assume children are safer with
their parents than when unsupervised, and that a helmet law will decreases
juvenile ridership more for children riding alone than with their parents,
then it's possible that the effect of helmets for children is less than a 15%
reduction in fatalities.