Wearable Airbags: The Next Frontier in Sports Safety Gear

Whether gearing up for a motorcycle ride or setting out for the ski slopes, safety gear is essential. Some sports gear manufacturers are taking safety to the next level: wearable plastic airbags that deploy during a fall or crash.

Italian company Dainese has developed a wearable air bag system for use in motorcycle racing. Dainese says that during a crash, a high-pressure plastic airbag deploys in only 40 milliseconds to protect the biker’s neck, shoulders and collar bones.  The lightweight plastic air bag is unobtrusive before being deployed, and the manufacturer says it is strong enough to withstand crashes when inflated. The airbags are currently in use by some Italian professional motorcycle racers.

This technology is now headed to the slopes.  Alpine skiers hurtle down mountain sides at near 100 mph speeds while negotiating bumps and sharp turns, sometimes in icy conditions. The world’s top competitors continue to push the sport to new levels, but at a price: crashes at top speed can lead to serious physical injury.  The International Ski Federation has partnered with Dainese to develop plastic air bag systems that would deploy during a fall, similar to motorcycle air bag technology. While still under development, researchers hope that this system will reduce the incidence of serious injury in the sport.

Spanish company APC Systems has developed a neck brace airbag that can be used with virtually any helmet. The plastic airbag is regulated by a small control box that detects loss of biker control and is designed to deploy in less than .15 seconds.  It inflates around the biker’s neck and upper back to stabilize the neck vertebrae during a collision. The APC System is available for purchase.

While primarily aimed at “extreme sports” participants, this technology is now available to everyday bicyclists from Swedish company Hövding.  Hovding’s wearable plastic airbag looks like a fashionable nylon scarf — but when accelerometers detect abnormal movement, the airbag inflates to envelope the entire head, similar to a helmet. The company suggests that the plastic scarf/airbag could completely replace the traditional cyclist helmet.  The technology will be available in spring 2011 to road warriors worldwide.