It has been established that neck braces aren't able to prevent compression, yes. It has also been established that any type of equipment is not meant to guarantee any prevention of injury. Your post got me interested as I re-watched the Canard wreck over again. Watching it, you see that Canard mostly takes the impact onto most of his back. I'm not sure if this crash was the best example, since it just looked like this crash didn't require the leatt either way. Meanwhile, Morais had no neck brace and hit the deck head first with a tremendous amount of force to his neck. Aside from his jaw injuries, he broke his C1, C2, C6, C7 and T1. Could a neck brace have prevented those injuries? Could he have been better off with no neck brace? Of course somebody could say the leatt helped regardless. But there have been plenty of riders that have suffered those kinds of injuries even with a leatt. You also can't compare it to Canard's because Canard had a much different impact than Morais. Back to what I said before though;, equipment is not guaranteed to save you. In a way, it remains as a mystery.Evo997 wrote:Look at this picture, this is how your vertebrae move. There are three main ways to break a neck, twist, bend, compress. The two that get addressed by a neck brace are bend, and twist to a lesser degree. Obviously, getting landed on like Trey Canard in 2012 is a compression, and a neck brace will do next to nothing, but maybe a little help because his neck wouldn't have been bent as far over exposing more vertebrae. To be 100% effective would have to be overly restricting. A Leatt is designed to keep your head from moving too far from the original position. Anyone who has worn one understands. It's simple science and the picture alone should let you come to the conclusion yourself. Bend the vertebrae too far in either direction and they fracture.
Saying they do nothing is absolutely ridiculous. Companies would not be investing money and time into making a product better if it didn't work. They'd do what most cheap companies do, make it and say it's perfect; never touching it again. People break their necks, it happens. Majority is a compression, either head first into something or landed on. A neck brace can't help with that. In reality though, it's better to be landed on than have your neck snapped from it getting bent back.
I wouldn't say that they do absolutely nothing. 1% means something, but 1% isn't substantial. I also said before that we will never know what really went on in the investment process for the leatt. Maybe leatt wants to seek out the better and innovate it to make it better. Maybe their current model is their base template and all of this is a big test/work in progress (which is what I believe it to be, personally). Its unfortunate to know the danger in the sport and scary to know that safety equipment only does so much to prevent you from harm. I'm not saying any of this because I'm a neck brace hater. I actually support the neck brace, or any sort of neck protection for that matter. I hope the sport can find a way to make substantial neck protection that works. I continued to wear the leatt for 2 years after I heard what I heard, but I didn't ever feel the same about it. I took mine off just out of personal preference. If it wasn't for a high risk in broken collarbones, shoulder injuries, chest injuries and back injuries, I wouldn't ever question wearing one. But all of those injuries are a high price to pay for 1%. The choice between taking and leaving the 1% all comes down to personal preference. The way I see it, I don't blame you for wearing one and I don't blame you for not wearing one.
