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A new form of head and neck protection for racing car drivers is examined. The concept is one whereby the helmet portion of the system is attached, by way of a quick release clamp, to a collar-like platform which is supported on the driver's shoulders. The collar, which encircles the back and sides of the driver's neck, is held in place by way of the on-board restraint belts. The interior of the helmet portion of the assembly is large enough to provide adequate volitional head motion. The overall objective of the design is to remove the helmet from the wearer's head and thereby to mitigate the deleterious features of helmet wearing such as neck fatigue, poor ventilation and aerodynamic buffeting. Just as importantly, by transferring the weight of the helmet and all attendant reaction forces associated with inertial and impact loads to the shoulder complex (instead of to the neck), reduced head and neck injury probability should be achievable.

Current state of the art in Anthropometric Test Device (ATD) headform development does not include biofidelity of the mandible and the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). In order to investigate the protective aspects of mouth guards in relation to mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) potential, a headform with an articulating mandible has been developed. The headform is based upon the 50% male Hybrid III and has a steel mandible with steel upper and lower dentition and a compliant TMJ structure. The headform may be instrumented with tri-axial C.G. accelerometers, and includes tri-axial force sensors at both left and right TMJ's as well as the upper dentition. Mandible force and displacement response under direct chin impact has been validated against cadaver corridors developed recently at Wayne State University.