Recent accident investigations (1) (2) have shown that faciai impacts account for some 31% of the head injuries sustained by two-wheel-motorizedvehicle riders, and that the existing full face helmets have brought out no significant reduction in injuries with the exception of minor facial injuries. In fact, they indicate some 79% of this type of injury for non-wearers of vizors and 21% of these same injuries for wearers of these.

However, if the injuries that are more serious than minor are considered, on the basis of these same bibliographical sources, it emerges that the degree of facial protection provided by the fittings that are standard equipment on most of the helmets available on the market enables no meaningful reduction in the frequency of occurrence and the severity of these injuries.

These reasons, added to the absence of regulations governing this area, prompted to design and produce, under a French Government contract, a prototype helmet in accordance with ECE regulation 22-02 to whose facial part (vizor and jaw part) specific investigations were devoted.

The unit composed of the vizor, jaw protector, and shock-absorbent material located in the front part of the "integral" helmet constitutes the facial protection of the prototype.

A separate investigation was devoted to each of the features listed above. The complete prototype helmet was then tested with human subjects, under the same conditions as other commercially available helmets reputed to be "satisfactory".