ltc

http://www.onestopstrategy.com/daily...sh+helmet.html

Tuesday 4 June at 08:35 : Jun.4 (GMM) Maria de Villota has revealed the terrifying extent of the damage to her carbon fibre helmet that saved her life during an horror Marussia test crash last year.

The 33-year-old Spaniard suffered serious skull, brain and facial injuries last July when she inexplicably lost control of the F1 car whilst straightline aerodynamic testing at Duxford airfield (UK).

Her head, now visibly scarred, struck the loading ramp of a truck, and today she wears an eye-patch to cover her right eye, which was irreparably damaged in the crash.

At a road-safety and spinal injury event in Madrid this week, de Villota revealed the $4,000 carbon-fibre Bell helmet she was wearing in the crash, which was cracked almost in half from underneath the visor to the rear-mountings for the HANS safety device.

A photo, published by Spanish newspaper El Pais, can be seen at: http://ep00.epimg.net/ccaa/imagenes/...cia_grande.jpg

"Until now only my family and friends have seen it (the helmet)," de Villota is quoted as saying, "but I think it's also important for others to see it as well."

Referring to the extent of the damage to the expensive, specialised F1 helmet, she added: "If this is what we have in formula one, imagine what would have happened if I had not been wearing anything."

Coochas

Wow, she must have hit right on an edge or a point to do that. She is really lucky to be alive. I'm amazed that an impact like that didn't twist/snap her cervical spine. Wow.

Vonschmidt

That is amazing looks deadly , hats off to the safety engineers that are keeping all of us Alive.

consolidated

Patch is sorta hot, just sayin'

gums

unbelievable

911Königin

She is one lucky lady - looks like she could have been decapitated

Sean F

the damage to her skull was crazy

look at the MRI

http://jalopnik.com/5951915/this-wom...utal-accidents

jbossolo

Saw that. She's very brave. And lucky.

Coochas

OMG. That is amazing.

skl

That's not an MRI- but manipulated 3D image from a MDCT scan, but very impressive to say the least!

What a freak accident- remember wondering how that ever happened back when it occurred.

(with all the HIPPA laws these days, I wonder how someone ever had access to that image)

gums

It's a very unusual fracture, obviously an outside object causing it.
Must have been a horrific scene.

Gator996

Holy crap is that MDCT scan scary! Somebody was looking out for her.

Sean F

Why doesn't she have more visible scaring?

ProCoach

They spent DAYS in the OR afterwards, plus cosmetic surgery after that.

Horrific, worst-case accident. She's good, too.

Matt Romanowski

No HIPAA because it was in Britain.