Visor ProblemsShattered Bicycle Helmet Visor?
Cut by a Visor Edge?
Summary: This page was intended to document two problems with bicycle helmets that are not addressed by any current U.S. standard: shattering on impact and cuts from visor edges. A third and partially related problem with visors is snagging. Visors must detach readily from a helmet in an impact to prevent them from jerking the rider's neck. A fourth is blocking vision. There is no visor test in most standards.
Shattering Visors
Over the years we have heard isolated reports of helmet visors shattering on impact. In one case the rider spent over an hour on an operating table while surgeons picked shards of the visor out of her face. There was an incident report filed with CPSC in 1998 by the mother of a rider whose face was injured severely in a crash, in her opinion by a shard from the shattered helmet visor.
Cuts from Visor Edges
In August of 2007 we received this report: "I recently had a crash where the visor of my Trek Helmet hit the pavement and broke. The larger piece sliced a cut from my forehead to my eyelid requiring fifteen stitches. I will need additional surgery to conceal the scar a little bit. I would never have thought a visor could cause that much of an injury."
In August, 2000, we had a report from a cyclist whose visor had cut him in a crash. When he hit on the front, the visor was shoved under his face and cut him between the nose and lip, requiring seven stitches. In June, 2007 we received another report from a parent whose 4-year old child required 9 stiches to a 1 1/2 inch long slice to his head between his eyes (see below).
Snagging
Another problem with visors is attaching them too securely, preventing them from flipping off in an impact. The visor that does not readily detach, or is not made of flimsy material, can jerk the rider's neck. Evidence of that happening will be considerably less clear than the indications when a visor shatters. On the other hand, wind might get under a visor on a fast downhill and flip it off.
Cuts, shattering and failure to detach can be addressed with additions to current bicycle helmet standards. The Australian standard already has a test for the detachment parameter.
BHSI has been advocating for years the addition of a similar test to the ASTM standard, and needs more info from the field on this known problem.
If you have information on a visor problem of any kind that caused an injury, please file a report with CPSC,
and we would also appreciate it if you could send us an email.
We have been pressing ASTM to develop a test for visor shattering and visor detaching force, and will use
your input to push manufacturers to make better visors and test them to make sure they will not injure the rider in a crash.
There are, of course, visors that will not shatter. Some are made of stiff foam, for example. Others are made of very flexible foam. They can be useful. If your helmet did not come with one, you might be able to make one yourself. At least one rider emailed us that he makes his own from table place mats, or the cheap foam visors you find at the beach. He mounts them with self-stick hook and loop fasteners and will never have a shattering problem.
Here are the emails received so far. Note the long periods between messages indicating that this is not a frequent occurrence:
Posted June 8, 2007
My 4-year old child sustained 9 stiches to a 1 1/2 inch long slice to his head between his eyes. It was a minor crash with a severe injury. The visor on his Giro helmet sliced his head wide open. This product, if not already, should be recalled. Why should children have to suffer potentially life threatening injuries from a defective product. What if we were on a bike ride far from help, he would have died with the amount of blood loss he sustained from his injury!
Tearfully,
Michele
Posted December 9, 2003
Just a quick note to inform you that Giro visors "can" cause injury. Not as indicated in the instruction manual. "Whilst the visors themselves do not offer impact protection, they do not influence the safety performance of the helmet".
If it wasn't for the visor I would have this injury!!!!!!
What caused the injury was a minor "face first" impact to the ground after being flipped over my handle bars. The impact forced the visor to detach from the helmet on the left side and with the peak of the visor slicing a nice chunk of skin of my nose.
My helmet is about two years old so hopefully more recent models do not have the potential to cause injury, if not - it might be a good Idea to look into it more.
I have already sent this to Giro, not expecting a reply but within minutes I got one - "Sorry I am out of the office until the 16th".....
I recently was involved in a solo mountain bike accident in which there was a frontal impact to my helmet. The crash caused the visor to snap off my Bell helmet. It is not clear whether the visor was pushed into my face or my sunglasses caused severe lacerations which required plastic surgery to repair. Both visor and sunglasses were lying on the trail after impact, but the nature of the lacerations would appear to point towards the visor. Having gone through this experience, I would not want anyone else to have a similar situation. Therefore, I am considering a new helmet that does not incorporate a visor and sunglasses which have full frames and are not of the "blade" type design.
I was in an accident on July 13, 2000 where I was riding down a trail at Caesar's Creek and I hit a root. As a result I was thrown from my bike and landed on the top ( front part) of my head. The visor broke off of my helment on one side causing it to be under my face when I landed. It cut my face between my nose and my upper lip. I had to get seven stiches. The
helment I was wearing was a Giro Ventura.
I can say for certain that shattering visors are a potential safety concern. First, let me give you some background. My son, who is currently 11 years old, has been racing motocross (motorcycle) since he was 5 years old. Two years ago, he was lacerated during a crash by his shattered motorcycle helmet visor. The cut went through the left eyebrow, continuing down around the corner of, and very close to his left eye. The cut required 10 stitches to close.
Here are the similarities I have found in full face "youth size" motorcycle helmets vs. full-face bicycle helmets. First, you cannot get a Snell approval in a "youth-size" motorcycle helmet, and the construction quality is certainly less than "Adult" helmets. Youth motorcycle helmets are very close in construction to high end full face bicycle helmets. To me, visors on motorcycle and bicycle helmets look and feel identical in construction and style, and probably are.
The helmet my son was wearing when he went over-the-bars and took a frontal impact on the helmet was an "MSR". MSR stands for "Malcolm Smith Racing", and is readily available at most motorcycle shops. I don't know who the ultimate manufacturer is, but it resembled a KBC. Malcolm Smith Racing was very helpful when I contacted them to ask "why did my son's safety equipment injured him"? Ultimately, their explanation made perfect sense. We are giving up safety for cool looks. Yes, the new style visors are made of stiff (which means brittle) plastic so that the fancy paint will stay adhered to the visor. If the visor was soft and pliable, the paint would flex and chip off. So, it's the mighty dollar at work...but I think there must be some middle ground where both concerns can be met.
Posted March 11, 2005
From a recumbent rider with a laid-back position whose front fairing channels wind up under his visor--not a common occurrance
One of the things that has bothered me about visors (ridden on a reclined recumbent bicycle) is that they act like wind dams. On fast descents, or windy days you can actually feel the front portion of the helmet lifting (or at least wanting to). I suspect that on folks with poorly fitting helmets that can cause the helmet to actually rotate more or less rearward exposing the forehead.
Another recumbent rider wrote to remind us that visors are more important for recumbent riders because of their laid back position. Although head position, not body position, is the important variable, here, if you ride with your head back looking down your nose he could be right.
While I believe that visors should be designed for the correct detachment effort and impact resistance, let's not lose sight of the fact that collision avoidance is more important than collision survival.
That is, using a visor, especially on a recumbent bike, can prevent collisions by keeping the sun and headlights from oncoming cars, out of our eyes. A visor also helps to keep insects out of the cyclist's eyes, even if the rider is wearing glasses. Visors may also help in some small way to keep dust out too.
Given the choice of using a visor that is not shatter-resistant and using no visor, I'll chose to use the visor.
When standards for visor size are determined, recumbent riders should not be forgotten. We generally need our visor to be 1-2" longer than a diamond-frame rider would, due to our leaned-back position.
Received May, 2006 on paper
A Tucson cyclist sent us a detailed report of a crash he had caused by failing to see an overtaking Suburban (a large SUV) when he moved out to the left from a bike lane to make a left turn. He believes that the visor of his helmet blocked the Suburban from his vision. He replaced the helmet with the same model, but removed the visor immediately. He also replaced a new helmet mirror that he had not been able to use effectively, returning to a handlebar mirror.
The Bottom Line
When we started this page we expected quite a few emails. Over a period of years we have received very few. We believe that the problems with visors are evident, and are probably under-reported because most of the injuries are minor. We continue to hear about them from time to time, but despite the justified indignation of injured individuals there is no evidence we can see that there is a large epidemic of visor injuries. Improving hazardous designs is still necessary, and we are pursuing standards improvements to test visors.
In the meantime, as the recumbent rider above noted, avoiding a crash is your first priority rather than being safe from visor problems. if you are a rider who really needs a visor to see where you are going, using one is likely to be less hazardous than not being able to see well. But the Tucson cyclist's experience shows that there may be a down side to that as well if you permit the visor to mask part of your vision.
This page was last revised on: August 7, 2007.
Contact us.
|