Outdoor safety: Helmet safety - Head first

Photos by Colin Thompson and Havre Daily News staff

No matter the activity, helmets come with some basic features: The shell, an impact management - foam - liner and a chinstrap or harness to attach it to your head. Other features can include a liner between the foam and your head, or some type of face protection like a visor or shield.

Helmets that have proven to meet standards set by industry experts are certified by the organization that performed the testing.

Snell Memorial Foundation is a non-profit organization that tests helmets designed for a variety of activities and sports. The organization's Executive Director Edward Becker said helmets certified by them pass standards that include crash testing, impact management, peripheral vision, capability of the retention system - aka harness or chin strap - and, for specific helmets, flame resistance, penetration resistance and facial protection performance.

"We're looking at just about everything a rider or a driver wants in a helmet that he cannot evaluate for himself at the time of purchase," Becker said.

This holds true, whether the rider is on a motorcycle, a bicycle or a horse, or the driver is in a race car or a 4-by-4.

Isaiah Rosales, an employee at Knicker Bikers in Great Falls, said that it's important for people to pay attention to whether or not a helmet is certified - often helmets at the cheaper end are not, he added, so it pays to investigate.

Because there are different certifying organizations, it's also important to know if a specific certification is needed for your activity, especially if you're thinking of participating in a sport.

For example, in the U.S., motorcycle helmets have to be certified street legal to U.S. Department of Transportation standards, but a sanctioned motorcycle race might require Snell or United Nations Economic Commission for Europe - called ECE - certification.

Does safety matter?

Essentially, the experts said, as long as the helmet is certified, then whether you buy a lower-priced helmet or the expensive one, the helmet is going to offer industry-standard safety.

What you get as the price goes up, generally speaking, are the niceties, features that include lighter-weight materials, better ventilation, more options for fit and better styling.

As an example, Becker said, often with the lower-price motorcycle helmets the company will have only a couple options for outer shell sizes. This means that even if the inner surface of the helmet fits a small head correctly, the helmet looks huge with the over-sized shell.

Some features, he added, are specific to a sport, such as race car helmets being equipped with forced-air cooling that is powered by the driver's vehicle.

"You're not going to get one of those on a horse, I don't think," he said.

Form follows function

Candy Hering, owner of Heart of the Valley Tack Shoppe in Vaughn, said she grew up in a ranching and racehorse family, so did a lot of different riding as a kid. She said safety gear was required on the racetrack, but not thought of at all at home, and that was just normal.

When she was still in grade school in the late 1980s and early '90s, she said, she rode with two friends whose mother made them all wear helmets, but because equestrian helmets certified to meet safety standards didn't exist, they rode in bicycle helmets.

Different sports and activities call for tweaks in specific areas for certification, extra ventilation for bicycling, a full face shield for motocross or a higher shell penetration rating for high speed racing.

Some of the biggest driving factors in helmet shape, though, have more to do with necessity and tradition.

"Bicyclists could benefit from wearing a helmet as protective as a motorcycle helmet," Becker said, "but it would be difficult for them to carry all that weight, especially in the posture that most people ride bicycles, with their spine parallel to ground and their head over the handlebars."

Bicycle helmets are cut high in back, so bicyclists can be in that forward position over the handlebars and still look ahead without having the helmet rubbing the back of their necks. Plus, they have to pedal hard to get airflow, so the helmets need to have plenty of ventilation.

Motorcyclists don't require as much ventilation, but having their face covered is helpful, even in a non-crash event such as driving 70 mph through a swarm of bugs.

Equestrian helmets, on the other hand, are modeled after a few hundred years of traditional riding helmet that pre-dated safety certification laws, Hering said.

While it may seem almost trivial to seriously take into account the looks of a helmet that is being bought for safety purposes, Becker said that it's important for a helmet to look good, too.

"What we've found here is that riders won't wear a helmet that makes their friends laugh at them," he said. "It's true."

Motorcycle helmets

Montana law requires that youths under the age of 18 wear a helmet when on a motorcycle or quadricycle, whether as a passenger or driver on streets and roads. The law also says that the helmet must be a three-quarter or full-face style helmet that is "designed to meet Department of Transportation (DOT) and state standards."

U.S. DOT has detailed criteria for basic safety requirements for tester's, Becker said, but as the law is set up, manufacturers do their own testing and they self-certify that their helmets meet DOT standards. Transportation officials randomly spot check 40 different helmets each year, he added, to see if they are compliant with the standard.

Quality manufacturers, he said, have their own testing facility and they know if each helmet model will meet different organizations' standards. These manufacturers will have specific helmet designs certified with Snell, ECE, ASTM International or others, when they need that certification.

Bicycle helmets

Rosales said that, for the most part, with bike helmets you get what you pay for.

The helmets they sell at their shop run about $30 to $150, but it's not until about the $70 helmets that they come ASTM certified, plus, he said, the mid- to upper-priced helmets are more aerodynamic with better airflow and protection.

Bull riding/rodeo

Helmets are generally not required in rodeo, even in National High School Rodeo Association sanctioned events, but they are optional.

One exception to this rule is with the Professional Bull Riders which enacted a rule in 2013 that competitors born on or after Oct. 15, 1994, are required to wear a helmet.

Riders born before that date are grandfathered in, but some of them wear helmets anyway, said Melissa Henricks, vice president of Athlete Initiative Development.

The helmets have face masks to protect the riders' faces should they get yanked down onto the bull, especially if they make contact with the hard knob on the top of the bull's head.

Henricks said PBR does not specify a type or brand of helmet or even a certification because the riders are independent contractors and PBR does not have a sanctioning body.

The riders can chose whatever helmet they deem appropriate.

Many of the helmets, she said, are hockey helmets that the riders pick to suit their personal preferences on line of sight, hearing and weight.

For the riders who wear helmets, she said, it has almost completely eliminated facial and head fractures.

Equestrian helmets

The U.S. horse culture has a strained and somewhat awkward relationship with helmets.

Generally accepted, even required, in almost all English riding competitions, helmets in western riding competitions, even for youth, are most often listed as optional. Even the U.S. Pony Club states in its rules for every discipline from the stately dressage riding to polo competition that ASTM certified helmets must be worn, but for their western riding competitions, the helmet is optional.

ASTM recently changed the way they test equestrian helmets to better account for better shock reduction for larger people.

And stylistically for western riders, the designers and wearers of Hell Hats, which adds the brim from a cowboy hat to fit a helmet, are working to help break the stigma of helmet wearing in the western riding crowd.

Women's Professional Rodeo Association barrel racer Fallon Taylor has continued her partnership with Troxel helmets, not worrying about a brim at all, after she suffered a potentially life-altering head injury. Taylor worked her way back to racing to become the first barrel racer to win the National Finals Rodeo wearing a helmet.

Fitting and caring for helmets

Helmets should, the experts all said, fit snug around the head, and, Becker added, you should see the top edge of the brow and have side-to side vision. Fit can be further refined by placing, where needed, the padding that comes with the helmet.

"Our advice to riders, really, is that they find a helmet that fits properly, a little snug, but not too snug," Becker said. "Wear it for five to 15 minutes before they actually put any money down to see if there's any hot spots or discomfort because the helmet is too tight or doesn't match the bumps on their head."

One test for proper fit is to put the helmet on so that on your forehead it's touching bare skin, then nod your head up and down quickly. The helmet should stay secure against your forehead, only moving up down because the skin is moving with it. If the helmet slides across the skin, it's too loose. If the skin doesn't even move, the helmet is too tight.

Becker said that based on early research by Snell's founder, they recommend getting a new helmet every five years after the first wearing, as well as if the helmet has been struck in a fall. Even if the shell looks fine, the foam impact management liner could be crushed or compromised.

Care of any helmet is as simple as wiping it down when it gets dirty, but Becker recommended they be kept away from solvent and gasoline because those chemicals can degrade impact management liners, most of which are made of expanded polystyrene.

Get professional help fitting a helmet for the first time, Becker added.

"We've actually seen reports that, especially kids in motocross competition," he said, "the ones who get professional help fitting a helmet have 50 percent fewer concussions as a result of crashes."

Head injuries: The doctor’s notes

Head injuries can be tricky, said Dr. Don Sawdey, Emergency Department physician at Northern Montana Hospital, because it can be hard to tell when the damage is a bump on the head or something more serious.

Preventing head injuries is the best way to deal with them, but it’s not always easy with kids, he said.

“It is a battle, and I feel for every parent every time we see a kid (in the emergency room),” he said.

“With my kids, I’m forever battling them. It is trench warfare, parent and kids. It’s so tough and these are my own kids,” Sawdey said. “You know, you can’t explain to them what head injuries do to people. They don’t know, and they have no point of reference.”

Many times parents want a CT scan right away to determine if there’s a problem, he said, but exposing a growing child’s brain to radiation has possibilities for risk down the road. And because the CT scan can’t detect a concussion, which occurs on a cellular level, he said, it’s a tool that might better be saved for later.

Gone, too, are the days when people with a possible concussion should be kept awake, Sawdey said.

If a someone comes in with a head injury, he’ll do an assessment, have them hop on one foot or walk back and forth, ask them questions, watch their eyes, and maybe hold them for three or four hours, especially if they live a long distance from the hospital. He’ll check back, looking for regular breathing, drainage from ears or nose and generally try to determine if they are acting normal.

“A lot of times I’ll watch (kids) on their cellphone, and you know they got good coordination to be able to run through their cellphone and text and understand what’s on the phone. You know if they stare at their phone and can’t figure out how to get their phone to work — in a teenager that’s probably a major medical situation because they can work those things really good,” he said.

If the person lives close, has gone past the crucial first hour or two without trouble and has someone reliable to look in on them, he said, he’ll send them home for their parent, spouse or other reliable person to continue observations.

Adults on blood thinners cause concern, he added, “that just increases the chance exponentially that they’re going to have risk factor for bleeding in the head. So besides bumping your head, if you’re on a blood thinner and you have sustained an injury, that’s even more worrisome for us.”

If the person with a head injury is taking blood thinners and needs help for pain, he said, don’t give any medication that will thin the blood further. Which is what he recommends for anyone who just hit their head.

“I think the safest thing to do is to give Tylenol, then you don’t have to worry about any affecting of the platelets and the blood as far a clotting and so forth,” he said.

“And I wouldn’t putz around. If you’re going to give Tylenol, I’d probably give a real dose. You can look at the bottle, but for adults I’d give 1,000 mg; for teenagers, depending how big they are, maybe 500 mg,” he added.

The most important thing to remember in recovering from a concussion, Sawdey said, is that the patient needs to be careful not to re-injure the head and this extends to two weeks after the last symptom.

“The two weeks of doing nothing starts when you’re back to your 100 percent self, not when you got hit,” he said, adding that the entire resting period after a concussion means no physical activity or “brain calisthenics.”

Re-injuring a concussion creates long-term, possibly permanent problems.

Right after school let up, Sawdey said, they started seeing more injuries — bicycle, 4x4 and motorcycle accidents. Most of them were bumps and abrasions, but some were more serious head injuries.

“Preventive measures are so vital; brain injuries are a big deal,” he added. “They can change your life forever.”

--

This article is adapted from an article originally printed in HDN's July Living magazine.