Figure 1 shows the head condition of riders and passengers who were injured or killed in traffic accidents in 2004.
"No helmet ejection" represented approximately 90%, and "Helmet not worn" accounted for a mere 1.4%, showing that almost all motorcyclists and passengers as well as moped riders wore helmets. However, a five times larger percentage of unhelmeted people, or 6.9%, had worn helmets that came off in the accidents ("Helmet ejected").
An analysis of fatalities alone, shown in Figure 2, revealed that 33.0% of all moped rider deaths involved helmet ejection, and so did 22.0% of motorcycle rider and passenger fatalities, representing a remarkably high ratio of one in three deaths in the former category and one in 4.5 deaths in the latter. Helmet ejection tends to occur more among moped riders than among motorcyclists and passengers.
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As illustrated in Figure 3, the percentage of those whose helmets came off is greater in severe accidents that involved deaths and serious injuries. This is partly because the more serious an accident, the greater the impact that causes helmet ejection. Also, helmet ejection tends to increase the degree of injury, making the accident more serious.
In 2004, helmet ejection occurred to 359 people who died, to approximately 2,000 people who were seriously injured, and to around 9,000 people who sustained minor injury, indicating that helmet ejection occurs not only in serious accidents.
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