A group of researchers at Stanford have put
bike helmet air bags to the test.
How do they hold up?
First, in case you aren’t aware, there are
bike helmet air bags.
Typically, they’re packed inside a pouch
that you wear around your neck.
The pouch has sensors on it to detect changes
in orientation
and acceleration that indicate a crash.
At that point, a triggering mechanism inflates
the bag, which swoops up over the back of
your head to protect you.
An early bike helmet air bag called Hovding
received support from a Swedish insurance
company named Folksam, which said according
to their studies the airbag was by far more
effective than traditional bike helmets at
preventing traumatic brain injuries.
Stanford’s results support this conclusion.
Researchers suspended mannequin heads containing
sensory equipment upside down and then dropped
them onto a hard surface.
Some mannequins were wearing deployed airbag
helmets
while others wore traditional bike helmets.
According to researcher David Camarillo, the
airbag version had “the potential to reduce
the acceleration of impact by a factor of
five.”
Further, the study says that airbag helmets
can achieve up to an 8-fold reduction in the
risk of concussion compared to standard helmets.
Airbags are softer and larger than normal
bike helmets and can absorb energy more effectively,
distributing the impact.
In a Ted Talk in April, 2016, Camarillo said
that more kids got a concussion from cycling
accidents than through any other sports activity.
According to the CDC, this is true -- though
you have to keep in mind that more kids ride
bicycles than play contact sports.
It doesn’t necessarily mean that cycling
is more dangerous than full-contact football.
But Camarillo’s point was that kids do sometimes
receive concussions in bike accidents and
that, more importantly, traditional bike helmets
don’t do a good job at preventing concussions.
Camarillo said that the purpose of bike helmets
is to prevent skull fractures, which isn’t
the same thing as a concussion.
A concussion occurs when an accelerative force
makes the brain stretch, twist or bump into
the inside of the skull.
It’s an internal injury that results in
chemical changes in the brain
and it can have serious effects.
So a traditional helmet could protect your
skull from breaking
while failing to prevent a concussion.
The way we test bike helmets in the US is
within the context of skull fractures.
If we take concussions into consideration,
airbags suddenly look much more attractive.
But they’re tricky to test -- not only do
you need to prove they are better at preventing
cyclists from suffering concussions, but also
that the triggering mechanism will deploy
the airbag quickly, safely and under the right
circumstances.
It’s still a long road ahead before we see
bike helmet airbags as a legal alternative
to traditional helmets.
And that wraps up this episode.
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