Any one ever wreck? Did the helmet help?
Yes. I've crashed both ways (all racing, never commuting.. OK, one as a dumb kid). The fun kind of crashes - going close to 40 mph. Not tooling-around-town kinds of crashes. I cracked the helmets as they should crack. Did get a concussion once, but no major or permanent damage. I've seen plenty of buddies with lives saved by helmets that were completely mangled in a crash. I've never seen anybody faceplant. Broken collarbones yes, but no faces in the asphalt.
I have experienced the energy-absorbing capacities of rupturing foam enough times that I will always wear a helmet. Plus I make all my money with my head. It's the cheapest insurance I can buy. Helmets are designed to withstand the most common ways of crashing - head over bars, or head laterally onto the ground. They should be worn correctly - rotated to cover much of the forehead, not tilted back. Look, a helmet ain't gonna save you from everything. It will save you in a collision with the ground if you're travelling forward while sitting on a bike. It was never designed to save you from a collision with a car. If you encounter a car, you're pretty much F-ed. If that's the way I go, and if there is indeed an afterlife, I guess I'll just say "hey, I was as prepared as I could be... the cards just didn't line up for me." And if anyone ever buys the farm for lack of wearing a helmet... this is me not caring.