No more helmet cams............

[jeff55v]

Overzealous.

Whoever began this helmet camera rule is clearly overzealous. Yes, there are other places to stick cameras. None are as good as on a driver's helmet. The helmet provides the best view and isolation from vibration. Personally, I like (liked) mine on the side of my helmet.
It's pretty hard for me to accept that in a crash, the camera will not break away before causing a neck injury. These things are made out of plastic you know.

[RKO]

This is the kind of stuff that chased me away. Rules with no merrit. The snell rule was the final straw for me. I'll have to post a pic of my garage ornament one day. Never been in the water.

[Fast Jack]

Snell Foundation

I am going to contact Stephanie Palmer at the Snell Memorial Foundation . She is an Engineer in testing ,and ask if there is any merit to this "Safety Rule ". Snell is dedicated to helmet safety and I would consider them the expert on this subject.

[14J]

I am going to contact Stephanie Palmer at the Snell Memorial Foundation . She is an Engineer in testing ,and ask if there is any merit to this "Safety Rule ". Snell is dedicated to helmet safety and I would consider them the expert on this subject.

Jack I'm sure this call was made well before the new rule was agreed upon. The report is in the same file draw as the 20 pages of test data that justify's the Sidewinder height restriction in the A class.

[Islandmon]

Let me see I can , roll over, blow over, get chucked out, be T boned, get run over, sliced by a side fin, ripped open by a razor sharp prop and the brain trusts are worried about a puny little helmet cam................seriously ?


Sam,

[wagner-racing16-s]

Here is a simple test to figure the amount of force it takes to pull a helmet camera off. Take a fishing scale and attach it to your camera mount on your helmet and start pulling. There you can figure out the pound force it takes to break away. The cameras are stuck on the helmet with 3m double sided tape. The stuff is not super glue or screws. It will break off.
Hey APBA just passed another safety issue. Below is our new safety gear. Not only will you float but will cover you head to toe more then their insurance will.

[ian]

Not going to make me very popular, but so what. I want to attach my Gopro to my helmet with lag bolts, or super duper glue. No rule against it last year, correct? Do motocross racers deal with fluid dynamics? No. Sure, we could allow cameras, and add more RULES about break away tensions, profiles, etc, that our underworked race committees could deal with in the pits. I think helmet cams are cool, but really, we have other things to worry about.

[14J]

Not going to make me very popular, but so what. I want to attach my Gopro to my helmet with lag bolts, or super duper glue. No rule against it last year, correct? Do motocross racers deal with fluid dynamics? No. Sure, we could allow cameras, and add more RULES about break away tensions, profiles, etc, that our underworked race committees could deal with in the pits. I think helmet cams are cool, but really, we have other things to worry about.

True. So I will submit to those who took the time to write a helmet cam rule that we have other things to worry about. If they took the time to write it than the members have the right to take the time to ***** about it.

Note: I don't have a cam.

I think the response is less about the cam and more about what actions they see and don't see out of our leadership.

[Blackhawkguy]

Has anybody thought of this?

So I could realy care less what you put on your head-it's your choice, but with all this nifty helmet cam stuff going on has anyone considered that what you are doing is recording and posting all of the insurance infractions APBA keeps getting dinged on. Do all of the race coarses meet what limitations they are putting on you-does it meet your diagram you submited with your sanction to a T.

Seems to me all that you are doing is giving the people who want nothing more than to deny you coverge vidio proof of your non compliance.

I like the stuff people are recording but you may want to think before you hit record-the person you may be incriminating is yourself.

Kerry

[ricochet112]

On the bright side, there will be less head swiveling sucking edits to watch...

[john527]

video polaroid sunglasses, my son has a pair for rock climbing, they work great!, I will be trying them out in the boat as soon as the ice melts!

[sponsonhead]

One Expert's Opinion

While we all wait for Shawn's pal at Snell to weigh in, I thought I would share some thoughts from Bob Wartinger on Helmet Cam safety. For those of you who may not be aware, Bob does boat racing safety seminars all over the world (he's in Australia now), is UIM Safety Chairman, and has testified as an expert witness in countless trials and hearings on matters regarding boat racing safety. He's an engineer as well...generally, when he talks safety, some of us like to listen. I know it probably doesn't play well to this particular crowd, but here goes:

"The neck is a fragile thing....the vertebrae and muscles sheath the spinal
cord. Since the neck is essentially the first flexible joint along the
spinal column, damage to the nerves can impair the functioning of the rest
of the body as compared to a possible injury lower down the spinal column.
Medical personnel, studies, are unanimous that it takes only a small load
misapplied to the column to do a lot of harm. Can a helmet cam exert at
least five or ten pounds of force (actually, possibly a lot more) with a
lever arm and the rise time of the impact in milliseconds, sure can. The
argument is that the attachment of the cam to the head will
release...probably will, but not without applying force to the neck."

"The argument that the cams have been used and have come off without
imparting injury is the argument that is known as "near-miss bias".
The way this works in human logic is that if there is a risky situation that
turns out okay, then things are judged to be okay. Let me provide an
example. The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas on re-entry in
2003 due to a the failure of the heat protection thermal tiles, damaged by
the pieces of insulation foam that fell off the external tank during launch.
Now the pieces of foam had actually fallen off 65 of 79 prior launches (on
the average there were 143 divots in the heat shield per flight). The
engineers were concerned at first, but quickly fell prey to near-miss bias.
They stopped examining the situation. They accepted that the foam would hit
the orbiter during launch but it would not hit anything important."

"Wearing a helmet cam and risking an injury is not acceptable."


There you have it. Flame away, experts.

R-19

[14J]

While we all wait for Shawn's pal at Snell to weigh in, I thought I would share some thoughts from Bob Wartinger on Helmet Cam safety. For those of you who may not be aware, Bob does boat racing safety seminars all over the world (he's in Australia now), is UIM Safety Chairman, and has testified as an expert witness in countless trials and hearings on matters regarding boat racing safety. He's an engineer as well...generally, when he talks safety, some of us like to listen. I know it probably doesn't play well to this particular crowd, but here goes:

"The neck is a fragile thing....the vertebrae and muscles sheath the spinal
cord. Since the neck is essentially the first flexible joint along the
spinal column, damage to the nerves can impair the functioning of the rest
of the body as compared to a possible injury lower down the spinal column.
Medical personnel, studies, are unanimous that it takes only a small load
misapplied to the column to do a lot of harm. Can a helmet cam exert at
least five or ten pounds of force (actually, possibly a lot more) with a
lever arm and the rise time of the impact in milliseconds, sure can. The
argument is that the attachment of the cam to the head will
release...probably will, but not without applying force to the neck."

"The argument that the cams have been used and have come off without
imparting injury is the argument that is known as "near-miss bias".
The way this works in human logic is that if there is a risky situation that
turns out okay, then things are judged to be okay. Let me provide an
example. The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas on re-entry in
2003 due to a the failure of the heat protection thermal tiles, damaged by
the pieces of insulation foam that fell off the external tank during launch.
Now the pieces of foam had actually fallen off 65 of 79 prior launches (on
the average there were 143 divots in the heat shield per flight). The
engineers were concerned at first, but quickly fell prey to near-miss bias.
They stopped examining the situation. They accepted that the foam would hit
the orbiter during launch but it would not hit anything important."

"Wearing a helmet cam and risking an injury is not acceptable."


There you have it. Flame away, experts.

R-19

Great. Can the expert supply us with the lab data. As an expert he must have this available, yes?

[Matt Dagostino]

Personal Choices

"Wearing a helmet cam and risking an injury is not acceptable."
[/I]
There you have it. Flame away, experts.
R-19[/QUOTE]


Pat
While i would never wear a helmet cam nor allow my children to wear one, don't you think this O'Bama Care APBA philosophy has to slow down a bit before APBA legislates everyone out of racing???

I for one never allowed my kids to wear a full face helmet till they were in there later teenage years because I believed that full face helmets BUCKET water and can cause injury to young peoples necks in a crash. A childs muscles and bones arn't done developing till they hit about 16-18 years old (IN MY OPINION). Hence, as a parent i would rather risk a childs face being smashed in with a open face helmet in a wreck versus a broken neck due to bucketing in a wreck. A few teeth are easier to replace than a neck. But i am sure Wart would disagree, which is HIS choice. Racing is dangerous and risks are involved. People need to be made aware of the risks and make their own choices. For example if a driver wants to buy a $50 DOT helmet that should be their choice. If a racer wants to buy a top shelf ARAI super duper helmet then that should also be a free choice!! Let's just give folks the DATA and recommend what they should do and let people make their own CHOICES.

Let's stop playing O'Bama Care with APBA and give people a CHOICE. I liked the days when APBA 'RECOMMENDED" certain safety procedures giving it's members the choice to do certain things.

As my comrade The Mad Russian says........."The road to Hell is paved with good intentions".

[14J]

While we're at it why haven't we mandated cut resistant coverage for our hands and feet? Are our hands and feet less vulnerable and less important than the scientifically proven risk associated with helmet cams?