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Video: Airbag helmets more effective at preventing concussion, say researchers
Researchers at one of the world’s top universities say that airbag helmet systems can protect cyclists from concussion up to six times more effectively than more conventional helmets.
A team led by bioengineer David Camarillo at Stanford University, ranked third in the latest Times Higher Education World University Rankings, performed drop tests on an airbag helmet made by Swedish company Hövding and compared the results with those from a traditional foam helmet.
Camarillo, who has himself sustained concussion on two occasions after coming off his bike, said: “Foam bike helmets can and have been proven to reduce the likelihood of skull fracture and other, more severe brain injury.
“But, I think many falsely believe that a bike helmet is there to protect against a concussion. That’s not true.”
Launched in 2010, the Hövding airbag helmet, available in Europe but not yet sold in the US, is stowed in a collar worn around the neck and is deployed when a sensor detects a potential collision, inflating through the use of a gas canister.
The Stanford team, who have published their findings in the September 27 edition of Annals of Biomedical Engineering, carried out the tests in accordance with US federal standards for cycle helmets, dropping the helmets, placed on a dummy head, from heights of between 0.8 and 2 metres.
Postdoctoral research student Mehmet Kurt said: “We conducted drop tests, which are typical federal tests to assess bicycle helmets, and we found that air bag helmets, with the right initial pressure, can reduce head accelerations five to six times compared to a traditional bicycle helmet.”
In testing the Hövding helmet, the researchers pre-inflated it to a maximum pressure, which Camarillo cautioned meant that the test results might not reflect performance in a real life scenario.
“As our paper suggests, although air bag helmets have the potential to reduce the acceleration levels that you experience during a bicycle accident, it also suggests that the initial pressure that your air bag helmet has is very critical in reducing these acceleration levels,” he said.
He added: “There are many theories as to why concussion happens, but the predominant one is that, as your head rotates very quickly, the soft tissue within your brain contorts and, essentially, what you get is a stretching of the axons, which are the wiring of the brain.
“If our research and that of others begins to provide more and more evidence that this air bag approach might be significantly more effective, there will be some major challenges in the U.S. to legally have a device available to the public.”
The team now plans to test the airbag helmet for issues including its effect on rotational acceleration and the forces encountered by the head during impact, as well as examining its performance when dropped from a greater height.
Earlier this year, Hövding teamed up with the London Cycling Campaign to launch an app activated by a handlebar mounted button that enables cyclists to send an email to the city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, to log unsafe locations for cycling.
Video: Airbag helmet firm launches safety app for London cyclists
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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13 comments
It would be safer if they made a helmet that upon impact inflate up asap like car air bags.
At least you still have the helmet on just incase the system failed to operate for whatever reason.
I'm off to bed now as excited as Christmas Eve. Can't wait to wake up in the morning and see what Superpython has posted.
And I may very well agree.
"Camarillo, who has himself sustained concussion on two occasions after coming off his bike, said: “Foam bike helmets can and have been proven to reduce the likelihood of skull fracture and other, more severe brain injury.""
Not sure that I trust the research of someone so completely misinformed. All the large scale, long term, reliable data shows that cycle helmets do not reduce the risk to cyclists. This seems to be yet another study which started with the conclusions and worked backwards.
Ah well that may well be - but you're talking about something they're not.
Sounds a bit like the suit that Valentino Rossi trailed in Motogp. Instantly turning into the Michelin man. I can't imagine bouncing down the road on your head with this contrived head safety feature.
Better not to fall off if can be avoided. IMO
Missus, sister-in-law & mother-in-law all got Hovdings a couple of Xmas ago. 2 out of 3 have gone off for no reason, making them an even bigger waste of money than I already thought they were.
Still, mother-in-law genuinely thought she'd been shot, which was f@cking hilarious...
Just as well that:
I can't see mention of varying pressure but it seemed to be indicated that the pressure used was the operating pressure under ideal conditions (something they wondered about given the inflation was mediated by a chemical reaction).
Wouldn't testing it at it's normal pressure be more relevant?
reading the link, ie the university paper, they tested it at various drops and pressures.
The link gives what I would consider the Stanford Uni press release mentions different heights, nothing on different pressures, they say " In the testing, the air bag helmet was pre-inflated and the researchers maximized the pressure of the air inside the helmet before each drop in order to get these results", it links to the Abstract which makes no mention of different pressures let alone real world pressures, they do say "Furthermore, we construct an optimization framework for airbag helmets to minimize concussion and severe head injury risks at different impact velocities, while avoiding excessive deformation and bottoming-out". They seemed more concerned to prevent bottoming out in the test. The paper can be purchased for £35.94 and if anyone has free access I wouldn't mind finding out more. Ta
I would presume that unlike conventional helmets, the Hövding airbag needs to be activated for max effectiveness, and that is only achieved at full pressure. If the G force sensor doesn't trigger the inflation early enough, then it won't provide any/very little protection.
Anything that actually helps improve safety is surely a good thing.