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A racing helmet is a form of protective headgear worn by racing car and rally drivers. Motor racing has long been known to be an exceptionally risky sport:〔Lippi, G., Salvagno, G. L., Franchini M., and Guidi G. C.; “Changes in technical regulations and drivers’ safety in top‐class motor sports”; in ''Journal of Sports Medicine'', 41(12) December 2007; pp. 922–925〕 sudden deceleration forces on the head can easily occur if a racing car loses control at the very high speeds of competitive motor racing or the rough terrain experienced in rallying.〔 A risk more nearly unique to motor racing is the possibility of drastically severe burns from fuel igniting when the fuel lines or fuel tank of the vehicle are jolted sufficiently to dislodge or breach them in a situation in which the driver cannot soon enough escape from his car. This happened to world champion driver Niki Lauda at the 1976 German Grand Prix race at the Nürburgring in a crash from which he barely escaped alive. It is known that the percentage of racing accidents resulting in hospitalisation in motor racing, at around 25 percent, is higher than any other major international sport〔Nys, Jean-François; “Physical Activity, Sport and Health”; in Andreff, Wladimir and Szymański Stefan (editors); ''Handbook on the Economics of Sport''; p. 148 ISBN 1843766086〕 and that the average period in hospital is the longest. A recent Australian study also suggests motor racing may have the highest rate of actual injury among major sports.〔Dickson, Tracey J. and Gray, Tonia; ''Risk management in the outdoors :a whole of organisation approach for education, sport and recreation''; p. 98. ISBN 0521152313〕 However, a study conducted between 1996 and 2000 by Fuji Toranomon Orthopaedic Hospital in Shizuoka suggests that only a small proportion of these injuries are actually to the head or surrounding areas.〔O Minoyama and H Tsuchida; “Injuries in professional motor car racing drivers at a racing circuit between 1996 and 2000”; in ''Journal of Sports Medicine'', 38(5) September 2003; pp. 613-616〕 ==History== Analogous to gridiron football, cloth〔; Miele, Vincent J. and Bailes, Julian; “Head, Spine and Peripeheral Nerve Injuries in Sports and Dance: An Encyclopedic Perspective” in Bailes, Julian and Day, Arthur (editors); ''Neurological Sports Medicine: A Guide for Physicians and Athletic Trainers''; p. 188. ISBN 1879284758〕 or leather helmets with goggles to protect drivers’ eyes from dust were used by many pre-World War I racing drivers〔Simpson, Donald; “Helmets in Surgical History”; in ''Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery'', Volume 66, Issue 5, pages 314–324, May 1996〕 and already in 1914 the Auto Cycle Union made helmets compulsory for drivers of its racing vehicles. However, these helmets did nothing to prevent massive head injuries or burns during the numerous crashes encountered even when races were moved onto private tracks.〔 In the period following the war, concern about head injuries in motor racing continued to grow much faster than efforts to design safer helmets. Some racing drivers in the 1920s and 1930s were known to wear football or fire-fighting helmets as these offered better protection than standard racing headdresses of the time. Despite the fact that hard-shell helmets were used in motorcycle racing during the 1930s,〔Cairns, Hugh; (“Head Injuries in Motor-Cyclists: The Importance of the Crash Helmet” ) in ''British Medical Journal, Saturday October 4, 1941〕 it was not until the 1950s that a hard-shell helmet specifically designed for motor racing emerged,〔 and extremely soon after the first metal helmets were developed Formula One made helmets of this type compulsory for all drivers.〔(Helmets )〕 NASCAR, however, did not make full-face helmets compulsory〔(NASCAR safety )〕 until after the death of Dale Earnhardt in 2001. Although helmets had been mandatory in other races beforehand, the new technology greatly improved safety and allowed the use of higher speeds. Bell Sports developed the first mass-produced auto racing helmet in 1954.〔Charters, David Anderson; ''The Chequered Past: Sports Car Racing and Rallying in Canada, 1951-1991'' p. 67. ISBN 0802093949〕 By the end of the 1950s full face crash helmets were regarded as essential equipment for drivers in all forms of motor racing, and the Snell Memorial Foundation developed the first auto racing helmet standards in 1959.〔 Since that time, the alternative standard to that of Snell has been that of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, whose standards are used in Grand Prix racing.〔 The Safety Helmet Council of America also developed a race car helmet standard in the 1970s but currently only provides certification to the Department of Transportation which does not certify racing car helmets. Since racing helmets became general standard equipment, there have been many improvements made to their design to cope with the increases in power and speed of racing cars. The most recent of these has been the development of flexible “tethers” so that a head inside the helmet cannot snap forward or to the side during a wreck.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Racing helmet」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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