A rankings system designed to enrich current security requirements and fill the gaps regarding concussion dangers has been cautiously welcomed – and questioned – with consultants advising riders to have a look at the entire image when selecting a driving helmet.
The Virginia Tech Helmet Lab, which has been ranking helmets for various sports activities since 2011, has launched its first STAR (Summation of Exams for the Evaluation of Threat) analysis system for equestrian sport.
The main focus is on assessing which helmets finest scale back concussion danger, and the testing course of works by translating metrics from real-world head impacts into evidence-based check strategies to evaluate efficiency underneath sensible circumstances.
A complete of 40 driving helmets have been examined, and rankings printed on-line this month. Two earned the highest rating of 5 stars, 11 earned 4, and the remaining three stars or beneath – and retail worth was not essentially a mirrored image of efficiency underneath this technique.
“Requirements for equestrian helmets are sometimes based mostly on extreme impacts,” stated Stefan Duma, Helmet Lab founder and Virginia Tech’s Harry Wyatt professor of engineering. “What we discovered is that a number of riders come off at decrease velocities, and lots of helmets are too stiff to successfully cushion these softer impacts. The helmets that carry out higher are in a position to take care of totally different power ranges.”
To develop the system, researchers analysed greater than 100 movies of rider falls. They measured the hardness of sand, dust, grass and artificial surfaces at equestrian occasions, and took tools, together with dummy heads, necks and pendulums, to Virginia Tech’s equestrian services to simulate falls.
Knowledge was taken again to the lab to recreate falls in managed, quantitative exams, which used to evaluate the helmets.
“With each sport, we undergo detailed evaluation to ensure that the biomechanics we’re testing relate particularly to these athletes,” stated Professor Duma.
“For these rankings, we decided what the acceleration profile would appear to be for a rider falling on the bottom. Then we take that hint and convey it into the lab and recreate it, to ensure our testing matches what a rider would expertise in the event that they fell off a horse.”
He stated “the true key” is that the system “supplies a framework for producers to make higher helmets”.
“They will have a look at our evaluation, recreate that testing, and optimise their helmet design to make the most effective helmet doable,” he stated.
“That’s going to be higher for shoppers in addition to producers. In the end, we hope to scale back the variety of accidents.”
The analysis was funded by non-public donors, led by Jacqueline Mars, plus the US Hunter Jumper Affiliation, US Equestrian (USEF) and US Eventing.
The Champion Revolve X-Air MIPS helmet – the one Champion hat examined – topped the rankings.
“Champion has at all times been security first when it comes to our design, it’s our prime precedence,” Ben Hanna, manufacturing engineer at Champion Manufacturing Group, instructed H&H.
“We’ve at all times been making an attempt to push to keep up the best ranges. It exhibits all the trouble we put in through the years has paid off.”
He added that Champion knew Virginia Tech was engaged on a equestrian ranking system, however didn’t know which, if any, of its helmets had been examined.
He stated the rankings system provides fascinating perception into how helmets that meet the highest requirements, designed to check for cover in opposition to catastrophic, life-changing accidents, carry out in different conditions.
“I feel it’s essential to know that the Virginia Tech STAR rankings are particular to their check, as any ranking system is,” he stated. You possibly can solely rating helmets in opposition to what you’ve examined for, nevertheless it supplies that additional layer of perception and when selecting a helmet, from a security standpoint, have a look at the entire image and never only one particular person check.”
He added: “So I feel for individuals who need to purchase a brand new hat and need to know methods to interpret these outcomes, our place can be that the Virginia Tech STAR ranking is a helpful indicator of helmet efficiency.
“If persons are in search of the most secure helmet, they need to search for a well-fitting helmet that’s comfy and that they’ll put on day by day. As a result of you might have the most secure helmet on the planet, but when it’s uncomfortable and also you don’t put on it, it’s not going to do any good.
“You need it to be rated to [an approved standard] like PAS 015 or the most recent SNELL normal. And I’d undoubtedly help the movement that it is best to get a MIPS hat, as a result of it provides that additional layer of safety. Then have a look at the Virginia Tech STAR rankings.”
Different business figures have additionally welcomed the analysis – whereas elevating questions concerning the system.
MIPS, the multi-directional affect safety system, which is included in sure helmets and meant to assist scale back dangerous rotational movement, “welcome the brand new benchmark […] but elements of the check and ranking strategies depart room for enchancment”.
“Whereas we recognize the brand new initiatives to judge equestrian helmets and promote helmet security extra typically, we at MIPS imagine that the brand new ranking methods could also be trigger for confusion,” stated the MIPS assertion.
Producer Charles Owen, which had 4 helmets examined with various outcomes, additionally welcomed and questioned the system.
“We recognize the Virginia Tech findings in relation to low-velocity impacts. Nonetheless, it’s essential to spotlight the potential points in basing analysis strategies on social media movies of accidents,” stated a press release from Charles Owen.
“The three important worldwide security requirements of VG1, PAS:015 and ASTM incorporate low-velocity impacts as seen on this examine, as these do play a job in on a regular basis accidents.
“Nonetheless, there are additionally essential exams, corresponding to spike exams, rotational exams, crush exams and hazard edge exams that additionally must be thought of when evaluating helmet security.
“These exams are peer-reviewed and developed over a few years by medical consultants, business consultants and PhD researchers to duplicate main causes of rider head trauma and concussion.
“We encourage all riders to make sure their helmets meet a minimal of three security requirements [PAS:015, VG1 and ASTM] as this ensures your helmet has been examined in opposition to 9 totally different accident situations. As each rider will know, each accident is totally different within the ranges of drive, velocity and angle concerned.
“The helmet examine by Virginia Tech focuses on only one potential reason behind concussion. Whereas this may be helpful to simplify the science, we advocate that buyers dig deeper to know the accepted business requirements for themselves.”
Responding to Charles Owen’s assertion, Barry Miller, the helmet lab’s director of outreach and enterprise improvement, instructed H&H the lab makes use of a “big range of information sources”, which embody damage stories from sporting organisations corresponding to USEF, the nationwide damage database, and extra.
“However with out video footage, all of those strategies are nonetheless incomplete,” he stated.
“There are greater than 50,000 [US] emergency room visits from equestrian accidents yearly, however few have video footage to corroborate the small print of the accident. The movies we’ve used are primarily from sanctioned equestrian occasions and lots of might have been posted to social media.
“Whereas we’d not be capable of use superior pc analyses for every distinctive video, we will definitely add them to a rising catalogue of rider falls.”
He added that the lab welcomes movies from all sources to assist “perceive and quantify fall traits”.
“Our STAR testing and strategies have been authorized by the Institute of Medication, one of many highest scientific our bodies within the nation,” he stated. “The STAR rankings have additionally confirmed to assist producers enhance helmet designs [in other sports] that in flip diminished real-world concussions. We stay up for seeing these enhancements that take helmet security to the following stage.”
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Credit score: Actual Time Imaging/Steve Dawe
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