Vorpal wrote:Hard hats worn on construction sites occasionally encounter forces that exceed their proven design limits, such as dropped objects that are large enough, or have been dropped from high enough to exceed legislated standards.
Therefore they are pointless?
Similarly wearing leathers or helmets on motorcycles?
The frame of a car? The roll cage of a racing car? The roll over protective structure on a tractor?
All of these are safety systems which sometimes have their design parameters exceeded.
Does that make them useless? Should we tell race car drivers that they must never exceed a particular speed (100 mph?) because that increases the risk they will have an accident which exceeds the capability of the roll cage to protect them? Or a tractor operator that they must never operate on hills?
Surely the wearer should have a realistic expectation that the design parameters exceed events in the overwhelming proportion of cases. That probably applies to the examples you give, but does that apply to cycle helmets?
Safety equipment with only limited protection can give the wearer an unjustified sense of security, making them even more vulnerable. I'm thinking of gardening gloves.