SeanRitchie
Well-known member
- May 6, 2021
- 370
- 874
Article 'MRC "Grudge" Open Face Helmet - Solution to motion sickness?'
We have all heard about it, most of us have someone in the group that suffers from it, and even worse is when you experience it, the dreaded "Motion Sickness". It starts off you leave camp and everyone is happy to finally be in the toys that we spend so much money on, but the dream quickly can...
- RiverDave
- 3 min read
- Reaction score: 6
- Category: Featured Product
Dave's article on the home page stimulated me to start this thread about wearing helmets for recreational use. I am certain this topic will ignite some confrontation among many readers and contributors to this forum, which I am happy to light the match for. LOL. I do believe that respectful and intelligent debate is the best way to get all information into a readers mind so they can make their own informed decisions.
I will start by saying that I fully believe in ones right to choose how they want to have fun and enjoy their toys, and I don't believe any entity should force measures on any individual based on a minority or small percentage of incidents that will affect the majorities right to choose for themselves. Every individual has the responsibility to educate themselves and make informed decisions to their own safety. If you choose to engage in a dangerous form of recreation and choose not to utilize the appropriate safety measures to prevent serious injury to yourself (or others), you are responsible for the outcomes of any accident that causes injuries to yourself.
There is also hard evidence over many years that government mandated safety measures on the public such as seatbelts and airbags in cars, and helmet use for motorcycles has saved lives and prevented many serious head injuries (I am sure Gary Busey would agree with that statement if that portion of his brain was still working after crashing his Harley with no helmet).
With that said,
I have had quite a few conversations about this safety topic with various industry people over the years, most recently one about the tragic passing of Johnny Kaiser at the Norra 1000 race last year. From what I heard about the situation, it sounds like his passing could have been preventable if proper safety equipment was utilized. I myself will not even strap into a seat of any offroad car that is going to be driven at speeds of consequence without strapping on my race helmet and head and neck restraint (N-N-R).
We all know about the California law for helmet use in recreational caged vehicles with engines up to 999cc in displacement (I wonder how many Pro-R cars have been pulled over for helmet infractions since their release?). I think this law is somewhat good for the reason that there are lots of new drivers of SxS's that are simply inexperienced with how to operate these vehicles at the speeds they are capable of. Without digging into the numbers, I would not doubt it has saved some lives and prevented some serious injuries to a good number of people involved in accidents that otherwise would have ended badly without wearing a helmet.
It boggles my mind when I see how many people strap into these extremely high powered sand cars that I know for a fact are capable or achieving 120+ MPH in the open. What happens when that car has a sudden delamination or blow out of any one of it's tires? Or breaks a suspension mounting bracket, or looses a steering tie rod at those speeds? Most of us have seen the "Glamis Carnage" pictures on other social media outlets of the aftermath of these instances.
Now for the meat and potatoes of my thoughts on the subject, What good is wearing helmet if you are not utilizing a proper head and neck restraint with it?
Obvisouly a helmet is great for situations where your noggin is going to come into contact with an object like a roll cage bar or even the ground. But, I would argue that most rollover type accidents are going to involve very stressful forces on the neck and spine. Once you add a 3-5 pound helmet, your neck is now required to support that extra weight (and momentum) in a serious rollover accident, leading to a high chance of injury to the neck and spine. I can attest that after 20 minutes of racing in a class 10 car at race speeds, you certainly feel the weight of that helmet in your neck, and will feel it for a few days afterwards.
I do feel that if you are choosing to make the right decision and wear a helmet, you should highly consider using some from of head and neck restraint device to compliment it. Even a cheap foam neck donut is going to offer some support in the event of an accident.
I am not saying that you should not wear a helmet without an H-N-R. Any protection you add to yourself is a smart thing to do. What I am saying is that utilizing the H-N-R with a proper helmet will certainly be the smartest way to prevent a serious injury to yourself (or other) in the unfortunate instance of any form of accident.
I don't want to make this a polical discussion, but as much as I hate government interfence into our personal decisions to protect ourselves, I know that it is not something that is simply going to go away, especially in California. If we educate ourselves and others, and utilize the proper safety equipment that prevents serious injury to ourselves, we just might have the upper hand when the government starts looking at reasons to shut the public out of our public recreation areas due to a high rate of injury or death. Don't give them a reason to stick their slimy fingers into our way of having fun.