Not wearing a polystyrene hat saved my life!
While riding home from the pub without my polystyrene hat on my head(the eagle eyed among you will have probably spotted the root cause of the problem from the last sentence) I attempted to slide the round a loose gravel corner. The wheels dug in, I high sided, and found myself flying head first parallel to the ground.
When I hit the ground the first point of contact was my shoulder. As soon as it hit the ground I started rolling. The end result was that I had a very sore shoulder, quite a bit of grazing on the side of my head, and a severe lecture from the missus about drinking to much.
Had I been wearing my polystyrene hat the first point of impact wouldn’t have been my shoulder it would have been my head. I can’t tell you how much energy my shoulder absorbed in the impact but I can guarantee you it was more than the 0.2 inches of compression in the helmet would have.
Had I been wearing the lid I’m sure I’d be sitting here saying that the helmet left me ‘only’ concussed and not dead.
I still always wear my helmet mountain biking.