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Posted by hipstomp | 16 Oct 2007
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Comments (6)
Years ago in Japan, we spotted a special safety vest for construction workers that inflated in the event of a fall to protect their bodies. Turns out the technology, which amounts to a personal, wearable airbag, has finally found its way to the 'States; motorcyclists use the Impact Jacket to protect them in crashes.
Also turns out it works--Maryland motorcyclist Joseph McPhatter was the first (involuntary) rider to use the jacket in a crash, as he flew 100 feet through the air and hit the pavement at an estimated speed of 140 miles per hour. His injuries were minor.
Cool, no? And now some small, collegiate part of us desperately wants to deploy the Impact Jacket during a bar brawl.
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Comments
How is it that someone is abruptly cut off when 'cruising' at 140 MILES PER HOUR??????!!!
To be blunt he deserves to die for travelling that fast. All this idiot has accomplished is raising an innocent driver's insurance rate.
This technology has been in the US from other companies, for 5 years or so. The important issue is inflation time. It needs to inflate in milliseconds - like an auto airbag - to be effective.
The new ones got nanocoating and automatic sunshading built in the glass, so you go fast when sun is low... Regards from Steen, Copenhagen...
He was probably doing 70 and went head-on into another vehicle doing 70, for an effective crash speed of 140.
It was 70mph. And he didn't fly a 100ft...he *slid* a 100 ft. Some journalist decided to to creative math between his going 70mph one direction, and the road going 70mph in the opposite direction, and came up with the (flawed) conclusion that the impact must've occurred at 140mph. In actuality, your impact rate when you go into a slide (like McFatter did) is quite low...you're falling from a height of about 4ft. The horizontal velocity is scrubbed off gradually as you slide to a stop. Did the jacket save his life? I suppose it contributed to him still being alive. But a rugged denim jacket could do the same if the conditions were the same (speaking from experience). He didn't actually smack anything other than the ground (which again...you only hit with the force of having fallen 4ft). Think about it...if the trauma of what he went through was so severe...why are his legs not broken? Had he smacked something, it would've been more conclusive.
Int in air bag jacket. Must be cool for hot humid climate.