HANS device
HANS (dispositivo de sujeción cabeza-cuello)
- Date
- 1981 · confidence medium
- Place
- Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
- Credited to
- Robert Hubbard
- Field
- Movement
What it is
A motorsport safety device that tethers the helmet to the driver's torso, reducing the risk of basilar skull fracture and other severe neck injuries in a crash. It is now mandatory in most top-level motorsport competitions.
Hubbard, a biomechanics professor, developed it after the death of his brother-in-law, driver Patrick Jacquemart, in a 1981 crash.
What it led to
- Mandatory use in Formula 1 and other categories from the 2000s
- A documented reduction in basilar skull fractures in racing crashes