Individualized Helmet: An Approach for Reducing Road Traffic Injury Casualties

Abstract

AbstractIn India, every year, more than 4 lakhs people lose their lives in different accidents as per Government of India data that translates to more than one person getting killed every minute in the country. Out of this, Road Traffic Injury (RTI) is the most serious preventable but large and growing public health burden especially for low and middle income countries including India. 141,526 persons were killed and 477,731 injured in road traffic accidents in India in 2014 (NCRB 2015); obviously, it includes a large number of two-wheeler riders. Motorcyclists are a group of vulnerable road users, representing 23% of the global RTI burden. It has been observed that among motorcyclists, injury to the head and neck is often the main cause of death and disability. Though use of helmets can reduce substantially the number and severity of injuries and deaths, there is common tendency to not to wear it, and the non-use or improper wearing during use of helmets is associated with injuries and disabilities in case of accidents taking place leads to higher treatment costs in the event of a crash. Studies have identified poor/ improper design of helmets as one of the reason of non-usage; therefore, addressing the underlying cause is the need of the hour. In this backdrop, a study has been undertaken to ‘personalize’ or tailor make helmets on the basis of anthropometric data for developing regression models to predict the appropriate helmet for the user in order to facilitate reduction of non-usage of helmets due to improper fit. Data from North and Eastern India of young adults of age range 20–30 years have been used to develop the model, and the latter has been validated subsequently. Further studies with similar focus are required to design standard ‘personalized’ helmets that may have the potential to reduce at least some proportion of the RTI.KeywordsRTIUser centricityAccident preventionNutritional AnthropometryMathematical modelDesign intervention