Helmets often cause rotational injuries to head and neck. A helmet, well or poorly-fitted can act like a large wrench on the head leading to a twisted (or worse) neck. This is why aerodynamic time-trial helmets are so dangerous, but it doesn’t stop rubes buying them in Condor to ride the DD. This looks interesting but does mean that the oft-repeated twist injury has its foundations in fact.
Until one of the myriad of ideas to cut down on auto-bike accidents is successfully implemented in cities nationwide, perhaps we should focus some energy on finding ways to minimize cyclist injury in the meantime. A new helmet designed for motorcyclists aims to do just that. According to Treehugger, Lazer Helmets created a helmet with a biomimicry-based Superskin membrane on the inside of the hard exterior to follow the movement of a cyclist’s head-on impact. As Stephen Knowles from the International Design Consultancy explained:
Traditionally, motorcycle helmets have been rigid in design. We needed to introduce a dynamic element of movement to dramatically reduce the rotational impact which often causes life-threatening injuries. On impact, the outer membrane is able to stretch and slide over the main helmet shell to prevent these dangerous rotational forces being transmitted to the head and brain.
Treehugger has a video demonstration of the head’s movement in both a traditional helmet and the Lazer helmet and the decrease in head movement is pretty significant. Hopefully the helmet can be augmented for bicycle riders, at least until the great auto-cycle debate comes to an end and we can learn to share the road.
Photo via Lazer Helmets
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