White Paper: A helmet for prevention and mitigation of spinal column and spinal cord injuries in Head First Impacts

Introduction & Background: Head first impacts can cause some devastating injuries to the cervical spine. In the worst cases cervical spine fracture and injury to the spinal cord can occur leaving those afflicted paralyzed for life. Transportation accidents and sporting events are two of the most common situations for head-first impacts and in many of these activities helmets are worn. Some examples are a hockey player going head-first into the boards after a check from behind or a football player hitting another player head-first during a tackle. We think of the helmet as an engineered interface between the head and impact surface and are exploring whether its traditional role of head protection can be extended to include protection of the spine in head-first impacts.