Damn Amp, you probably eliminated 15-20 potential posts, are you trying to prevent me from getting that DVD player or something?
bhutocracy, well please feel free to do your research, and if you need some links to see the statistics proving my point, please feel free to ask.
A few points though. Motorcycle racers rarely take a full impact on their helmets, their helmets provide to functions, one is to prevent injury from sliding their heads along the pavement, and aerodynamics.
Secondly, the first thing done in an ER for a massive head trauma, is crack the skull, if it has not been done so in the accident, to relieve the pressure on the brain from swelling. An experiment, take a chicken egg, and shake it vigorously, then crack the shell and notice the yolk is broken. Same thing happens with the brain (or your brain on drugs).
Lastly (for now), but certainly not least, the percentage of head injuries due to motorcycle accidents is a fraction of those received in automobile accidents. It is illegal to wear a helmet while driving a car. Care to guess why that is? There are a many reasons, but I will see if you can figure them out.
Lastly, while I may not approve of seatbelts, I would never get in a car without one. There is a big difference between what happens to innocent bystanders if a motorcycle rider leaves his bike. If a car is involved in an accident, and the driver is ejected from it, the car will rarely just fall over. Much damage can occur to a driverless car as opposed to a riderless motorcycle.