How Rossi’s AGV helmet might have saved his life!

Dainese owned AGV helmets have released a press statement, where they discuss how Valentino Rossi’s AGV Pista GP helmet saved him from any major injuries after his dangerous crash at Aragon. Rossi was hit by his own bike’s rotating rear tire, briefly losing consciousness. He also suffered from temporary memory loss, and headache after the incident, but was not affected in any life-threatening way. 

Andrea Iannone also had a crash similar to Rossi’s due to the artificial grass in the run-off area, and now MotoGP governing body has decided to remove all astroturf from future racing venues. The astroturf was put there to prevent riders using the run off area as extra race track, allowing them to take corners faster, but seemed to have a lot of dangerous unintended consequences, including the fatal crash of Shoya Tomizawa.

Location and details of crash.

Outer shell shows clear signs of damage.

First impact with the ground following his high side.

Rear of the helmet took the first blow, with the spoiler breaking off as it was supposed to.

Helmet hit by rear wheel and swingarm/brake components.

Tire marks on the side of the helmet.

The visor holding mechanism was torn off.

Rossi with his lid.

Rossi’s helmet provided an incredible level of protection to his head, a result that can be attested by his blazing speed in the very next GP. AGV took away the helmet to analyze it after the crash, and dismantled it completely to understand how the accident impacted the helmet, and how it saved Rossi’s life. As you can see in the photos, the helmet took quite a beating! Here’s an excerpt from AGV’s statement:

Tests carried out on Valentino’s helmet following his violent fall during the race, showed no critical structural failures and demonstrated how the helmet had perfectly absorbed the energy from the impact to protect his head from trauma injury.

All in all, Rossi escaped without any injuries surely because of the high quality helmets supplied by AGV. There are still millions of ignorant bastards in India who think helmets serve no purpose. Hopefully, this post will give them an idea about how a relatively slow speed crash can prove fatal and life threatening, and how a good quality helmet can save the day!