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The first helmet
the helmet was made of leather and didn't protect people's heads that well. the mortality rate due to bikes was high -
The first plastic helmet
the Snell Foundation made the first bike helmet after a man named Pete Snell died in a bike accident -
the bike boom
around 1970 one of the many bike booms happened where biking became super popular meaning the bike helmets needed to be good or a lot of people would die (image: hairnet helmet) -
Making it into bike shops
the Washington Area Bicyclist Association wanted to find data on the production helmets and thier brands and founded a Bike Helmet Committee so they could collect data from ride testing.
they collected enough data to make a better helmet that had vents and a squishy foam liner. No EPS yet -
Standards for helmets put in place
The American National Standards Institute made regulations for bike helmets so there weren't any faulty helmets causing people to die. -
Foam helmets
so the helmet could be lighter certain Bell made a helmet with no shell and just a lot of EPS foam -
Shell is added
the shell is added for extra protection because of the foam breaking on the first hit normally killing the rider -
More foam
more foam was added so the mortality rate would drop. And it did. -
now
now deaths are lower in bike crashes due to bike helmets meaning that we have come a long way from the leather staps we had before the modern helmet
