Pro-Neck-Tor: Enhanced Motorcycle Helmet Safety |
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File under Helmets Safety
Author: Mike Werner
Location: Normandy, France
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For the people who embrace motorcycle helmets, it's one of our most protective pieces of equipment we can have. Our head and neck are the most vulnerable body parts we have, and in the case of a crash (or even just falling off the motorcycle), even at limited speed, we can easily hurt our neck. You don't need much.
But... a helmet as is today, is not sufficient. Yes, a helmet will stop many issues we can have when crashing, but if we've built up some speed, just the fact of hitting an unmovable object with our head/helmet implies a sudden deceleration. This sudden stopping means that our neck receives a lot of the crash impact energy. And that is not good. It's a simple physics. The energy of the impact must go somewhere, and in our case, it's our neck that the energy dissipates to. Our neck takes a beating and can easily fracture.
There's not much you can do about it. Until now.
The University of British Columbia  in Vancouver, Canada are working on a new technology helmet called the Pro-Neck-Tor .
The Pro-Neck-Tor is a double shell helmet, one inside shell and one outside shell. In between the two shells is a "mechanical" guide. In the event of a crash, the outside helmet moves alongside the guides, taking most of the kinetic energy, thereby moving (guiding) your neck in such a way that it reduces the impact.
It's a bit difficult to explain, so have a look at the video below. You'll get the idea.
The university have received a grant of $150,000 to continue the development and bring it to such a stage that a helmet manufacturer can mass produce it. So far, the university is still developing the helmet concept, but they have started talking to helmet manufacturers.
Currently, it is not know if the Pro-Neck-Tor would work with a Leatt Neck brace {link}, but looking at both safety devices, it shouldn't be a problem.
The helmet has many sport applications, from bicycle, skiing/snowboarding, football, ice hockey to motorcycle helmets. Any sport or recreation activity that can involve heavy blows to the head and neck. So far, they have been working for 3 years on this project.
The university has a dedicated website for the device. Click here to access the Pro-Neck-Tor site .
Pro-Neck-Tor (19 seconds)
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