Headband latest brainwave for reducing road deaths in Australia

By BILLY ADAMS

SYDNEY - It might look unusual, but motorists could soon boost their chances of surviving a crash by wearing a protective headband.

Australian scientists believe the visor-style headwear will prove as effective a lifesaver as driver airbags.

The headband is designed to soak up the impact of a collision to the front and side of the head.

Apart from the enormous human suffering, it could help to slash the financial toll of head injuries, which, at $A1.5 billion ($1.84 billion) a year, account for almost half the cost of car crashes.

But while the safety benefits are obvious, researchers admit that persuading drivers to put the headwear on could prove the hard part.

That is one reason Adelaide University's Road Accident Research Unit has designed a headband rather than a helmet.

"Quite clearly there are a lot of people, not just women, who would not want to have their hairstyle messed up by a helmet," said Professor Jack McLean, the department's director.

The headband was developed after the introduction of safety measures in the United States such as airbags and increased padding inside cars.

Australia's Transport Safety Bureau commissioned a study on the impact of the American changes.

The researchers investigated about 100 road accidents where people had been killed or sustained serious head injuries, and found that in most cases the impact was to the front or side of the head.

Since then the Adelaide team have developed a number of prototypes.

They hope a headband made from an expanded rigid plastic foam will go into production next year and be available to the public by 2003.

Weighing slightly more than a baseball cap, the padded area wraps round the temple and forehead and is attached to a strap running round the back of the head.

"We have been approached by a large firm which is interested in providing venture capital," said McLean.

The veteran of five decades of safety research is well aware that aesthetic qualities are almost as important as practicalities in gaining public acceptance.

"I'm quite old and I can remember when it was first proposed that motorcyclists should wear, not crash helmets because everyone knew that motorcyclists would never wear them, but safety helmets which were similar to pony rider helmets today," he said.

"When I first started wearing the helmet in Adelaide small boys would fall about on the ground laughing, but within five years all motorcyclists were wearing crash helmets."

McLean is driven by stories such as that of a 22-year-old who was to graduate from Adelaide University with a psychology degree. But she drove into a truck and has not picked up the award.

Last week, he received a letter from the mother of the student.

"She was in a coma for some time and had to learn again how to breathe, eat and drink," he said. "Her mum is still hopeful she will eventually stand up and walk."