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DOT Helmet Failure Rate Is Now 43 Percent

W

Wade Thiel

In the Government’s Own Sanctioned Testing​


The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) employed Act Labs—an independent lab in California—to test DOT helmets for labeling and performance from 2014 to 2019. During that time, the lab tested 167 helmets. 62.8 percent of the helmets failed the labeling portion and a whopping 43.1 percent of the helmets failed the performance tests. This is an increase over last year’s numbers.

This is especially concerning because DOT approval is a self-certification process, meaning the company itself is responsible for ensuring that its helmets mee the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 218 (DOT FMVSS 218).

Helmets that fail the testing will be forced to issue a recall and potentially be fined. This is good, but those helmets never should have been sold in the first place. There’s a lot of argument out there about what is the best helmet safety standard. ECE is what’s used in Europe. Then there’s SHARP, Snell, and FIM standards. They all claim to be the best.

I’m not here to argue which standard is best. What I am here to do is showcase that many of the DOT-only helmets for sale out there fail to meet the standard, which is a standard many in the industry agree is already outdated and doesn’t provide the level of protection needed for riders. However, around 43 percent of the helmets tested couldn’t even meet these inadequate standards.

Act Labs tested Bell, Scorpion, Shoei, and HJC helmets as well as many other helmets. You can see which ones failed the tests by checking out the Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance website.

So what should you do? At the very least, I’d check at the website above to see if a helmet you’re considering was tested and passed the testing. You could also consider buying a helmet that has been approved by one of the other helmet safety standards out there. Snell and FIM standards seem to me to be the best. The bottom line? DOT means pretty much nothing. Don’t trust it.

The post DOT Helmet Failure Rate Is Now 43 Percent appeared first on webBikeWorld.

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My DOT helmets passed. Next question?

"What I am here to do is showcase that many of the DOT-only helmets for sale out there fail to meet the standard, which is a standard many in the industry agree is already outdated and doesn’t provide the level of protection needed for riders. However, around 43 percent of the helmets tested couldn’t even meet these inadequate standards".

That's a broad statement that goes far beyond and is contrary to the previous statement. I'm not here to argue which standard is best. In order to give subjective opinion some weight, who is "many in the industry" and what is "inadequate". It's a version of an oil or tire thread.

It's a cut and paste hit piece that trashes helmet manufacturers that sell helmets that do pass DOT, lumping them all in with those that don't. It's also wrong to state that all helmets that pass Snell are tested. They aren't. They test random samples and the manufacturer gets to label all of that model Snell approved. DOT allows manufacturers to their own testing but random DOT helmets are also tested by independent third parties to make certain the helmet meets that standard.

It's good that riders can check the NHTSA data for helmets they might be interested in.
 
There was a documentary on motorcycle helmets on public TV (KET) not too long ago...they went thru the Snell testing...any helmet which went thru the Snell testing cannot be used or shouldnt be used by a rider after the testing...the Snell testing consists of dropping helmet from a certain distance (and we have always been told-or least I have been-if you drop your helmet, the helmet should be replaced), dropping weight onto the helmet; putting stress on the visor to find the breaking point, etc....so any Helmet which has been Snell tested cannot be used, or shouldn't be used by a rider...so that part of the article is inaccurate.

Anyways, above certain speeds, a helmet only creates an 'open' casket scenario anyways...I have had 3 occasions where my cheap DOT stickered helmets have saved my noggin (I was going less than 30mph in all 3 occasions)...had to ride into the ditch once when I came upon 2 cars racing each other on a country road in my direction (hood ornament on left car, hood ornament on right car, or hit the ditch)-wet clay is very slick and the bike immediately went down on its side...helmet hit asphalt and knocked off paint (replaced helmet immediately); 2nd time, riding thru the forestry on very narrow road and pickup truck came up over a blind hill on my side of road, had to ride off the road to miss the truck, this time wet grass, downhill slope and bike went down, helmet hit asphalt. 3rd time-got t-boned by a deer doing about 25mph (o dark 30-heading to work-never saw it until after incident), immediately sliding down the asphalt, helmet all scratched up. Replaced the helmets as soon as I could...No concussions or side effects from the DOT helmets hitting asphalt at low speeds (HJC, Scorpion, and Bilt).

If you go to that website to see if helmets passed or not, even Arai has 3 models which failed (2 for performance and 1 for labeling)....
 
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