Autoblog

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Motorcycles always have that ever-present danger of turning their operators into hamburger should the rider take a spill. Racing crashes are especially nasty, and while leathers do offer protection from road rash, cushioning impacts to the upper torso is key to increasing survivability. Dainese, a manufacturer of cycling equipment, has been working on an airbag system to help riders avoid injury called the D-Air suit. The system relies on accelerometers and gyroscopic sensors embedded in the suit, and when a computer determines there's a need, an upper-body airbag is deployed in less than a half a second. It looks like a similar, although much more complicated design, than the Airbag Jacket by Impact Jackets, which has already saved at least one life that we know about. Of course, this would all be avoidable if people didn't insist on climbing onto a powerful engine supported by the minimum of wheels and zooming around at the highest possible velocity, but what fun is that? Check out video of the Dainese D-Air suit after the jump.

[Source: Winding Road]

Other than a helmet (which many don't even want to wear), there is little protection for motorcyclists in the event of an accident. A company by the name of Impact Jackets has been selling motorcycle jackets with airbags for a few years, but at $500, many find the price too high. A Baltimore man can likely provide a terrific rebuttal to the high cost argument since the jacket saved him from plenty of pain after he was thrown 100 feet from his bike. Amazingly, the airbag jacket-wearing rider walked away from the life-threatening crash with sore ribs and a broken thumb, making it the best 500 bones he's likely ever spent. Paramedics that reached the scene of the accident were surprised more damage wasn't done. Impact Jackets has a pretty good video that describes how the airbag jacket works.

[Source: Kicking Tires]