Hats Off To Heads For Safety Research

New evidence is helping develop better helmet standards, but there is still more work to be done

- Rachael Turner

HELMET research is paving the way to developing new improved “evidence-based” safety standards.

Researchers Tom Connor and Michio Clark are exploring equestrian safety hats as part of the HEADS project, a European initiative encompassing 13 research projects looking into different sports.

Mr Connor, a biomedical engineer working with University College Dublin and Charles Owen, spoke about the study’s progress at the British Equestrian Trade Association (BETA) Conference on 30 October.

“Concussion in sport has been well documented, particularly for American sports and cycling, but equestrian sport has always gone under the radar as far as the public are concerned, even though [riders] present with injuries far more regularly than a cyclist, for example,” he said.

“There has been little done on this so it’s important we start to understand what the accident scenarios are and how technology is working to reduce the risk of injury, death and concussion-type injuries [in riders].”

HELMET BOUNTY

THE researchers have been analysing helmets involved in accidents as part of the study.

The crash hats were collected through BETA, the Irish Turf Club and Charles Owen.