onasled

This is the exact test that I did! Funny that you mention ed it.
It's not a completely accurate test and I had to take it three times before I was actually convinced to get the full faced ...

bobt993

I would suggest waiting the report from the recent DE fatality at the Glen July event. Driver had airbags deploy and full face helmet. I believe harnesses fitted on stock seats (boxster s). Very unfortunate situation. A member of my club . Early suggestions are the helmet hitting the airbag may have caused the major trauma.

ceboyd

..could be lack of hans and 5 or 6 point proper harness as well.. let's not jump to the conclusion that the airbag and full face helmet caused a death....


I feel safe with the fact that I have a race seat with back brace mounted to the roll bar, 6 point harness AND will soon have a full face helmet.... I'm confident that the airbag will never touch me if something bad happens (as someone else here mentioned hitting a wall head on and NOT having the airbag touch his full face helmet!)

RJay

This has been discussed before, but I'll repeat some info I received at a ground school we held this spring. Joe Marko, of HMS Motorsports, delivered a safety talk at that venue in which he mentioned that a study had been commisioned to do some sled testing with full and open faced helmets and airbags. Bottom line is that neither is a particularly attractive option. In the case of a full face helmet, it is true that ones jaw become susceptible to injury. In the case of an open helmet there was evidence to suggest that the airbag grabs the leading edge of the helmet opening and attempts to rip it off the top of your head as a result.

Joe, for obvious liability reasons, stopped short of recommending that one disable the airbag while on track. He suggested we draw our own conclusions. As I still occasionally track an airbag equiped car which I'm unwilling to remove the airbag from, I continue to use my full face helmet as it doesn't seem worthwhile to get an open one.

Chaos

Don't get a Stand 21 !

Wreck Me Otter

Harness and stock seat is a no-no. He had to have had the harness wrapped around the seat since, as far as I know, there's no belt holes in the backrest of a stock seat. My guess would be the harness would have slipped off being the first major issue. Whatever angle this caused him to hit the airbag was probably the next issue.

I'm also trying to understand how a full face helmet hitting an air bag is any different than your face hitting it. I'd imagine that having any kind of helmet may cause an issue sjmply because of the added weight....airbags were not designed for track use and I'd disable them in that arena.