Re: Just do it.
Uuhhhhh, I think you just did. :biggrin:
Hey BB, I followed the great debate several years ago and here's my take: Get the HANS and wear the 5 point for these reasons;
1. It will be your best protection in ____ % (pick a number; I pick 95) of your most likely accident scenarios.
2. Planning on being able to actively "duck" or react quick enough to avoid the thump on the top of your helmet during a rollover is ridiculous. You don't have the time or awareness of where you are and when the thump on the head will occur. Now it might be argued that you may have your head pushed down passively in a slow rollover, but I'm not so sure; you've got your full body weight trying to make your head meet the roof (or ground).
3. With the helmet/HANS mating configuration, The HANS may actually take the load off your spine and transfer it to the shoulders. Just speculation, like most of this debate.
And a point of clarification for anyone new to this debate: tracking your car more (faster and in a higher run group) does add more risk perhaps, only because you are probably at more risk of losing control. A lethal head-on accident can occur at 30 mph with full harness restraint. This obviously can occur at the novice level as well, so it's not that you're going faster, it's that your much closer to "the limit."
As for the instructor not wanting you to wear the shoulder belts, one reason may be that without the HANS, you are setting yourself up for a basil skull fracture more so than with stock belts which lets the body move forward (follow the head, if you will). And allowing the airbag to contribute if you still have it.
Anyway, tough call on the H&N device in a streetable (non cage) car, because you're always trading one risk for another. So a guy should figure in the percentages as well as the ultimate worst case results.
Well there are other reasons and we'll be reminded of those all too soon now.
Let us know what you decide.
