United States: Novelty Helmets Don’t Work

In the United States of America (USA), helmet wearing rates are declining and states continue to weaken existing compulsory helmet wearing laws. As a result, for the eighth year in a row, motorcycle fatalities continued to rise. Now, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) – the USA agency responsible for traffic safety – reports that 14% of helmeted motorcycle riders are wearing helmets that do not meet the USA safety performance standard. Many of the helmets being worn are “novelty helmets.” They look like a motorcycle helmet designed for on-road use but do not meet the minimum safety performance standard established by the government. Often these helmets look very similar to other helmets that do comply with the safety standard. Sometimes the helmets are called “beanies,” “skullcaps,” and “German army style” helmets.

NHTSA tested seven of the popular novelty helmets to determine their safety standard. None of them came close to the national standard. In fact, the helmets failed the tests in three areas:

1. Novelty helmets failed to absorb impact energy during a crash. To meet the federal standard, a helmet is permitted to transfer no more than 400g acceleration to a headform during testing. The novelty helmets transferred significantly higher accelerations, ranging from 636g to 992g. Novelty helmets have little or no energy absorbing liners that allow these large acceleration values to be transferred. The values are so high that computer modeling indicates that there is a 100% probability of brain injuries and/or skull fracture with novelty helmets. That means that someone wearing a novelty helmet will sustain fatal head injuries in a crash.
2. Every novelty helmet tested easily allowed a striker to penetrate the helmet’s shell. The striker transfers a penetration blow to the helmet. Novelty helmets lack the design characteristics to prevent excessive penetrations.
3. Novelty helmets are not designed to ensure that their strap retention systems can withstand crash loads. All novelty helmets failed the retention requirement tests. A retention system that can withstand forces applied to it during a motorcycle crash is essential to ensure the helmet will remain on the head during a crash.

The above results lead us to conclude that novelty helmets are dangerous! Motorcycle riders face a higher risk for skull fracture and brain injury when wearing them, compared to helmets that comply with the safety standard. This, however, is not a problem observed only in the USA. We’ve purchased and tested motorcycle helmets in Malaysia and Viet Nam and found that these helmets – although looking like other on-road helmets – were not effective in protecting the brain during a crash.

NHTSA. Traffic safety facts, research note. April 2007.

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