When bicyclists pay more money for their helmets, it doesn’t necessarily mean their heads will be safer in a crash, as there is no correlation between the price of a helmet and the level of protection it offers. Those are the main results of new cycle helmet safety testing and ratings released in a study from Imperial College London earlier this month, aimed to see how much protection different helmets offer and to help consumers make an informed choice for the helmet with the best protection. The study, “ How Well Do Popular Bicycle Helmets Protect from Different Types of Head Injury? ” was published earlier this month in a paper in Annals of Biomedical Engineering.
“Until now, there has been limited information about how well cyclists can expect their helmet to protect them during head impact,” Claire Baker, from Imperial’s Dyson School of Design Engineering and the study ’s lead author, said in a statement. “This is because current safety standards are simply pass/fail and only test direct impact sustained during straight-on head impact. However, evidence from previous studies shows that lasting brain damage occurs in more serious impacts or when the head undergoes rapid rotations during an impact.
” Researchers at Imperial College London developed a simple new cycle helmet safety rating system with easy-to-understand scores from zero for lower protection to five for the best on the market. The system, designed to help buyers select which helmet to buy and.