Developing the snowmobile helmet.

Abstract

With the annually increasing use of snowmobiles in the Nordic countries the amount of accidents is also increasing. The head is the location of some of the most serious injuries with head injuries comprising 12% of all injuries. At the time being there is no special standard for the snowmobile helmet and there are mainly two kinds of helmet models on the market: full face and open face helmets. The most significant differences between the helmets were observed in the subjective evaluation, whereas the differences were minimal in technical evaluation. According to this study an open face helmet was more comfortable than a full face helmet. The present helmets have many deficiencies such as the lack of thermal comfort, high weight, slow removal of mist from the visor and unsatisfactory hearing protection. The aim of future development projects should be to make a more comfortable and lighter helmet. One important aspect of the project could be to integrate hearing protectors and an information channel in the helmet.