March 15, 2011
How Tinted Visors Make Motorsport Safer
Motorsport has make massive strides towards improving safety the last ten years have seen multiple innovations coming in such as wheel teathers and fortified cockpit shells, fatal accidents used to occur on a regular basis and some of the worst tragedies in sport have happened at motorsport events. Take the 1955 Le Mans 24 hour race which saw arguably the most horrific accident ever seen. Not not after the race had began, three cars were jostling for position when one hit the sloped rear of the one in front, shooting into the air at devastating speed into the crowd killing over 100 spectators. Rallying is also dangerous, at a Portuguese rally in the 70’s members of the crowd were killed when a car crashed and ploughed into them at high speed.
The death of Ayrton Senna in 1994, one of the most well liked and high skilled drivers ever, really made motorsport regulators wake up to the fact that something needed to be done. Just one small aspect of safety that has been improved is the cockpit design, the driver is now surrounded by a protective safety cell that is extremely resilient to impacts. Added to this is the HANs device, brought into use five years ago to stop drivers damaging their necks in an incident. Visors are another important aspect of safety and even more pertinent now races are being held in low light conditions.
Just like prescription sunglasses or even designer sunglasses, helmet visors are coloured or tinted according to the light conditions, affording the drivers the best possible visibility. Normally drivers would use a dark or blue tined visor, just like Oakley sunglasses, but more recently and especially with additions of the Singapore night race and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix which starts in twilight and finishes in pitch darkness, a more varied range of visor types have been made available to drivers which make for improved visibility. Clear visors let the maximum amount light through while Yellow examples lift the low lights slightly.
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Filed under Eyewear News by sunnyvine