helmets are wicked

[kgd...@watbun.uucp]

a little sensationalism for the fire...

THE CERICOCRANIUM AND THE AVIATOR'S PROTECTIVE HELMET
by CDR E.J.Colangelo, NC, USN, Naval Safety Center, Norfolk, Va.

The Hangman's Noose Analogy

The inferior edge of the helmet, when visualized as part of the
continuous circle completed by the nape strap and the chin strap,
forms a loop that can be likened to a hangman's noose. The analogy
might be further extended to include the lesions made about the
neck by straps or the edge of the helmet, paralleling the abrasions
and contusions that might be associated with a rope having encircled
the same structures. When the knot is situated at the side of the
head (subaural), such a hangman's noose produces fractures of the
base of the skull, tending to extend bi-temporally through the basis-
phenoid When the knot is situated anteriorly and beneath the chin
(submental), the hangman's noose causes a fracture dislocation at the
axis. Characteristically the posterior arch is fractured and,
interestingly enough, the odontoid process is not involved...

- Ken Dykes
{ihnp4,decvax,allegra,utzoo}!watmath!watbun!kgdykes