Helmet effectiveness in preventing motorcycle driver and passenger fatalities.

Helmet effectiveness in preventing fatalities to motorcycle drivers and passengers was determined by applying the double pair comparison method to the Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) data for 1975 through 1986. Motorcycles with a driver and a passenger, at least one of whom was killed, were used. In order to reduce as much as possible potentially confounding effects due to the dependence of survivability on sex and age, the analysis is confined to male drivers (there were insufficient female driver data), and to cases in which the driver and passenger age do not differ by more than three years. Motorcycle helmet effectiveness estimates are found to be relatively unaffected by performing the analyses in a number of ways different from that indicated above. It was found that helmets are (28 +/- 8)% effective in preventing fatalities to motorcycle riders (the error is one standard error), the effectiveness being similar for male and female passengers, and similar for drivers and passengers. An additional result found was that the fatality risk in the driver seat exceeds that in the passenger seat by (26 +/- 2)%. The 28% effectiveness found generates calculated fatality increases from repeal of mandatory helmet-wearing laws that are compatible with observed increases.