Motorcycle Helmet Protection and Basilar Skull Fracture

Gibson, T. C.; Thai, K; Anderson, Robert B.

doi:10.1016/s0021-9290(07)70089-1

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 0 publications

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“…Moskała et al included an image of a ‘circular’ fracture in their study of PMCT in motorcyclists which shares the features in our cases; it is not further described, except to note that these types of fractures can be difficult to see on traditional autopsy [ 3 ]. A review of basal skull fractures in relation to helmet-use also described several fractures with features similar to our cases [ 13 ]. West et al also demonstrated fractures extending from the skull base to the occipitomastoid suture (as in case 1), but these were not bilateral and did not involve full circumferential fracture of the occipital bone seen in cases 2–5 [ 14 ].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

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PMCT images of a motorcycle helmet-associated fracture

Bell

Prickett

Rutty

2017

Forensic Sci Med Pathol

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 66%

“…Cases 2, 4 and 5 had clear evidence of an impact to the chin area, which could cause the fracture via force through the mandible, as described in the literature [ 7 , 8 ]. However although this may be the most frequent cause it is thought that skull base and vault fractures can result from impacts anywhere on the head [ 13 , 15 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

PMCT images of a motorcycle helmet-associated fracture

Bell

Prickett

Rutty

2017

Forensic Sci Med Pathol

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“…In the present work we focused on the optimization of the helmet chin bar and introduced a numerical approach to optimize the stiffness of the chin bar laminate, which is correlated to the transmitted neck load due to the blow on the chin bar [27], in order to minimize the upper neck force due to such an impact.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Any fracture occurring in this region or propagating to this region is called basilar skull fracture [27]. BSF can be caused by direct impacts at the base of the skull or by remote impacts [28,29], such as craniofacial impacts, which frequently occur in motorcycle accidents [22] and can lead to BSF [30,31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization of the Chin Bar of a Composite-Shell Helmet to Mitigate the Upper Neck Force

2016

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The chin bar of motorcycle full-face helmets is the most likely region of the helmet to sustain impacts during accidents, with a large percentage of these impacts leading to basilar skull fracture. Currently, helmet chin bars are designed to mitigate the peak acceleration at the centre of gravity of isolated headforms, as required by standards, but they are not designed to mitigate the neck force, which is probably the cause of basilar skull fracture, a type of head injury that can lead to fatalities. Here we test whether it is possible to increase the protection of helmet chin bars while meeting standard requirements. Fibre-reinforced composite shells are commonly used in helmets due to their lightweight and energy absorption characteristics. We optimize the ply orientation of a chin bar made of fibre-reinforced composite layers for reduction of the neck force in a dummy model using a computational approach. We use the finite element model of a human head/neck surrogate and measure the neck axial force, which has been shown to be correlated with the risk of basilar skull fracture. The results show that by varying the orientation of the chin bar plies, thus keeping the helmet mass constant, the neck axial force can be reduced by approximately 30% while ensuring that the helmet complies with the impact attenuation requirements prescribed in helmet standards. KeywordsHelmet, chin bar, upper neck force.

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“…This need for a representative facial impact test is supported by the investigation of real crashes 2 7 9 10. These studies consistently show the face region to be the most frequently impacted region on the helmet and that these facial impacts are particularly injurious.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%