Mandatory helmet wearing in cars would save many more lives than on motorcycles or bicycles.. [View all]

2010 motorcycle deaths in the USA.. 3,615
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motorcycle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year

2010 bicycle deaths in the USA.. 618
http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/facts/crash-facts.cfm

2010 automobile deaths in the USA.. 32,885 - 3,615 = 29,270
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year

Assume for the sake of argument that half of all motorcycle/bicycle deaths in the US would be saved by a mandatory helmet law, that comes to a little over two thousand.. I think that estimate is a bit high myself..

Now assume that only ten percent of car crash victims would be saved by a mandatory auto helmet law, a number I think is at least fairly reasonable, over three thousand lives would have been saved in America during 2010.

If mandatory helmet laws make sense for bicycles and motorcycles (and by no means am I saying they don't) then those same laws make even more sense for automobiles in which far more Americans are killed and injured each year.