[Dean]

Don't go dumping those full face helmets so quickly...

Unless there is substantially more data than the one report they site, this is just plain bad science in my opinion...

The one study referenced is for Formula 1 cars, not passenger cars, and more importantly makes no reffernce to Open Face helmets at all.

See attached below...
____________________________

From: Mark Andy
To: Evolution Discussion ; autox mailing list
Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2004 8:31 AM
Subject: [evolution-disc.] Re: Potential new helmet rule would affect autocrossers

Howdy,

On Thu, 18 Nov 2004, Rocky Entriken wrote:
> I really do not believe we can prevent this -- "safety" issues always
> seem impervious to any objections -- but we might get it imposed in a more
> user-friendly manner (if a new helmet you must buy, would you not rather be
> able to get a Snell 2005 than a Snell 2000 that already has 4 years of its
> rulebook life gone?)

Go read the report before you happily kowtow to the company line.

That said, I don't know where you can (properly) get a copy of the report.
The one I have (which I will not redistribute since I don't know if that
violates copyright or whatever and the paper itself doesn't say) which has
the title "Hubert Gramling, FT3/AF, 18.5.1999 is a study focused on
comparing airbags and the HANS device in formula one cars. While the
study does mention (in a passing manner) that the airbag hitting the chin
area can cause damage, they make no mention whatsoever of that chance of
damage being lessened by an open face helmet and don't appear to have
tested that configuration. Nor do they appear to have tested using airbag
geometry common to passenger cars, vs. F1 cars.

In short, basing a safety decision related to passenger airbags and full
face vs. open face helmets on this particular study would appear to be
complete folly to me as the study is answering very different questions.

And if you think its "good enough" and can be extrapolated to cover the
situation, I beg to differ. In the paper, they talk about spacing the
airbag another 50mm (~2") closer to the dummy and have what appear to be
significant differences in performance. I'd submit that if 2" makes such
a difference, certainly the different body position in a passenger car vs.
a formula one car would make a difference.

Not to mention that THEY DON'T TEST THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AIRBAG IMPACT
WITH AN OPEN FACE HELMET VS. A CLOSED FACE HELMET!

I sincerely hope that Tech Services or whoever issued this bulletin has
other supporting information.

Mark