Regarding point #3, not really. IF you're wearing a helmet and you're adiquetly protected, ie leather jacket, jeans, etc, then you have a higher survival rate then those that don't.
Case in point, a guy at my church was on his bike just this past Thursday and was hit by a car. His entire right side is messed up, they amputed his foot about mid shin. He's got massive broken bones, but because he was wearing a helmet he's in better shape than had he not worn one.
On the other hand, I was drivng home from a wedding 10 years ago almost to the day. I happend to take a route that I don't normally take from the church the wedding was at (the reception was about a block away, we all walked there). I was driving along, zoning out as to where I was exactly, but paying attention to the cars. It was close to midnight, so not a lot of cars on the road, save for 3 in particular. There was an IDOT (IL Department of Transportation) truck, a motorcylclist and me, all in a row, center lane of the Edens. The truck pulled into the right lane to gather the contruction barrels, for whatever reason the cyclist slammed right into the back of the truck.
I slammed on my breaks and swearved into the left lane and stopped once I got to the shoulder. I was the start of a chain reaction. Everyone after me stopped in their lanes, while a couple people stopped on the shoulder.
I got out of my car and ran down a mental checklist of what needed to be done. Everyone around me was doing those things as I mentally checked them off.
Fortunatly a semi stopped in the lane we were in, effectivly blocking traffic. He called for an ambulance a good two times since it took way too long for emergency workers to respond at that time of night in the burbs!
The paramedics loaded this guy onto a gurney and started working on him, they asked if he had a helmet on and I said no, realizing for the first time that he never did. You see one of the guys that stopped grabbed a clean towel out of his gym bag and used it to staunch this guy's blood. He held his hand trying keep this guy awake and living while we waited.
During that time I could hear him chocking on his own blood. When he was finally put in the bus, there was a serious pool off blood where his head was.
In standing around waiting for the cops to show up, we were all talking to each other and it turned out, I was the only one that witnessed the entire thing. The truck driver didn't eve know what happened. He said he felt something bump the back of the truck but didn't know what it was.
I gave my statement to the police, gave them my contact info and left. I never heard what happened to the guy.
