Facts About Wearing a Helmet While on a Motorcycle

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), wearing a helmet decreases your chance of death in an accident by 37 percent. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that as of June 2009, 20 states and the District of Columbia had mandatory helmet laws applicable to all riders, and forgoing a helmet in these states can result in a stiff fine.

Helmet Care

• Storing a helmet improperly decreases its ability to protect you. Store your helmet away from gas, cleaning fluids and exhaust, as their fumes can degrade helmet materials. Helmets should be replaced if they were involved in a crash, because the damage from the force of impact reduces their protective capabilities.

Vision and Hearing

• The NHTSA ran a series of tests to counter claims that motorcycle helmets can lead to accidents by restricting riders' vision and hearing. Their results demonstrated that wearing your helmet doesn't impede peripheral vision significantly and that hearing was only affected at speeds of 50 miles per hour and greater due to increased wind noise.

Protection Against Head Trauma

• The IIHS reports that motorcycle riders without helmets are three times more likely to suffer brain trauma in a crash than riders wearing helmets. Brain trauma can lead to long-term physical and cognitive impairments, and the Brain Trauma Foundation reports that people who suffer a severe head injury are 4.5 times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than the rest of the population.