Trevor.Dennis wrote
jane-e wrote
davescm wrote
[Edit to add : Lest my comment be mis-interpreted, I do support the wearing of helmets for bikes, and car racing and cycle helmets for cycling.
Adding to what you say, Dave the requisite helmet should be a MIPS (Multi-directional Impact Protection System). I replaced my helmet several years ago. They are made for motorcycles, bicycles, skiing, and more.
I’m sorry about your friend’s son. A relative of mine has a brain injury after a fall, and I also know how devastating it is, both to the injured and to the family.
A wee angle on helmets — whether for motorcycles, cycles, skiing, horse riding etc. — the craze of hanging a camera onto your protection system, can dramatically compromise its ability to do the jog it was intend for. Just ask Michael Schumacher. Or rather ask his wife who has looked after him since his GoPro pierced his helmet and skull when he had his ski accident.
As far as I am aware, his helmet split in two after he struck a partially snow-covered rock while skiing, and was catapulted with his head into a second rock. The impact split/exploded his helmet in two.
The investigative team couldn't answer whether the gopro mount would have compromised the structural integrity of the helmet. What they/we do know is that the camera itself was intact (and did not pierce his brain as you assert) and undamaged, which seems to indicate that Schumacher's head/helmet probably did not struck the spot of the helmet where the mount was fixed. As far as the helmet's materials go, nothing was found wrong with it. The mount was glued on the helmet, and would not have (directly) affected the helmet's structural integrity.
Companies behind these mounted cameras make sure their camera helmet mounts break off easily, and in many tests have not found safety issues. You'd think they would test this through and through, because the last thing these companies want is to be made legally accountable for any deaths incurred by their camera mounts.
And researchers have checked whether mountain bikers have suffered any head injuries might have been caused by camera mounts for years and years, and nothing stood out, it seems.
The problem at the time (2014) was that a French Formula 1 commentator Jean-Louis Moncet asserted to have spoken to Schumacher's son, and that he thought that the Gopro mounting had caused the brain injuries. Later Moncet withdrew his comment that he had spoken to the son.
Obviously the press jumped on this like chimps on a golden banana, and the story stuck in many people's minds as "true". But it remains but a doubtful opinion, not backed up by the research and investigations done so far by either the research lab and investigators at the time, nor by testing of the companies of helmet mounted cameras, or observations of observed head injuries since they were introduced in various outdoor sports.
What we DO know is that:
"shortly after 11am he [Schumacher] "deliberately" skied on to a patch of off-piste located in between two runs "with a number of dangers, notably rocks", according to investigators. It was here, no more than 20 feet from the piste, that he struck a partially-covered rock and then catapulted on to another, crashing his head with such force that his helmet split in two. "
The distance between the first rock he struck and the second rock he hit with his head is 9 meters. The piste he was skiing on was very steep. Some people have suggested that having a camera mounted on your helmet might induce some people (males in particular) to take more risks. But whether this was the case with Michael Schumacher? We can't know for certain.
Nothing can be said with any certainty about the role of the camera mount in this accident either. We do know that Michael Schumacher risked getting into a severe accident by going off-piste into an area with obviously visible partially covered boulders and rocks on a very steep hill. And going off-piste is your own responsibility. He himself is to blame for putting himself in a situation where an accident was much more likely to occur. A tragic accident. That is all there is to it.
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