A safer helmet?

A motorcycle helmet can save your life in an accident, but it can still cause a headache for emergency personnel.

While a skid lid stops your brains from being scrambled by an unplanned meet-up with the pavement, if a paramedic responds to a motorcycle accident, they have a tricky decision to make; on one hand, the rider may need that helmet removed for medical attention; on the other hand, moving the downed rider’s neck may result in spinal cord injury.

But according to Gizmag, Australian helmet makers Voztec have come up with a solution. They’ve designed a new motorcycle helmet that can be opened from the rear, making much easier for emergency responders to remove it without impacting the rider’s spinal cord.

The helmet isn’t secured by a chin strap, like most other units. Instead, the rider opens the back of the helmet and slides his head into it, and locks the helmet with two clips on the side of the helmet. This arrangement is supposed to offer more chin protection, as well as make it easier to remove the helmet.

Should the helmet need to be removed after an accident, there is also a pin on the top of the helmet, which enables emergency personnel to completely remove the back half of the helmet, making it much easier – and safer – to care for a downed rider.

This helmet is still only in prototype stages, but you can see a video for the unit below. Beside their motorcycle helmet, the company is also working with skydiving, equestrian, military, firefighting and snow and water sport helmets.