INFLATABLE JACKET CAN LESSEN INJURY IN MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENTS

From: New York attorney Gary E. Rosenberg (personal injury and accident attorney and lawyer; serving Brooklyn Queens Bronx; Queens Injury Lawyer)

As a motorcycle-licensed rider I, Gary E. Rosenberg, am very aware of the dangers posed by riding a motorcycle. I have written on this subject over and over again. For example, see my blog post of April 26, 2010: Avoid Injury in Motorcycle Accidents - Wear Correct Clothing 

The possibility of broken or fractured leg bones, such as a broken or fractured tibia or broken or fractured fibula or a break or fracture of the largest bone in the body, the femur, which is situated between the knee and the hip. Of course the ankle has several bones that can be broken or fractured, both singularly or in combination, such as the lateral malleolus of the fibula and the medial malleolus of the tibia along with the inferior surface of the distal tibia articulate with three facets of the talus. And let us not forget broken or fractured patellas (kneecaps) and ligament and meniscus tears of the knee. And there is the well-known abrasion commonly called "road rash." Many of these injuries can be lessened or avoided by wearing good pair of boots and heavy long pants. I will discuss treatment for these injuries at another time.

I have written often about helmets, recently in a five part series - you can see all five parts in my blog, start with part one -- and I will leave discussion of prevention of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and brain bleeding and skull fracture for another article.

My focus here is on avoiding upper body serious injury. A new-fangled jacket that advances the cause of safety is coming to riders everywhere-from the high speed and dangerous world of motorcycle racing. The garment is intended to lessen the severity of common motorcycle accident upper body injuries such as broken or fractured clavicles or shoulder blades, shoulder injuries, including ligament and rotator cuff tears, and neck and cervical spine sprains, strains and vertebral fractures or broken cervical vertebra.

The futuristic leap taken by this clothing is based on, believe it or not, air bag technology. Italian racing clothing manufacturers Dainese and Alpinestars, have been testing inflatable suits with professional riders, and will offer for sale these inflatable suits to the public. Dainese believes that it will be offering D-Air racing suits by the end of year 2010, and Alpinestars is trying for release by June 2011.

Since airbags have been around for many years, what's taken so long?

The problem is that most serious motorcycle crashes separate the rider from his or her bike. So to be effective, a protective suit has to be on the rider, not mounted on the motorcycle. It has to cushion the initial ground impact when the rider wipes out, and, unlike a car air bag, which deflates in milliseconds, the inflated device must continue to keep protecting as the rider as he or she bounces to a stop -- sometimes for over five seconds.

This specialized clothing, which is inflated by helium gas, is heavy on computer technology; no simple engineering feat.

And for street-riding gear inflatable clothing? Because of the much different accidents prevalent in street riding -- notably head-on or side-impact collisions that hardly ever happen on racetracks -- this technology may have a ways to go until it's widely available. However, both Alpinestars and Dainese suggest that the suits will one day make their way to public roads.