NHTSA orders manufacturer to stop selling helmets. Our heads thank them

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. And again. And again. Until the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tells you that your company is no longer allowed to make helmets and sell them in the United States. Or something like that.
Specifically, we're talking about a Florida-based company called Advanced Carbon Composites. Apparently, the helmet manufacturer's first product was called the EXT001, and it failed to meet the safety agency's standards. So, it was recalled, and the new model was the EXT002. Sadly, the revised helmet still wasn't safe enough.

And so the EXT003 was created. Guess what? It too failed the required safety standards. And so did the latest helmet, the EXT004. For those keeping track of such things, Advanced Carbon Composites built and sold some 17,000 helmets from 2005, none of which was ever deemed safe. What to do?

How about a cease and desist order. The NHTSA ordered Advanced Carbon Composites to "stop designing, selling or manufacturing motorcycle helmets." Company president Kim L. Davis has agreed to the NHTSA's demands and is not allowed to own more than three percent of any company that has anything to do with motorcycle helmets.

Case closed? Perhaps. Perusing the company's product portfolio indicates that it still offering helmets for kayaking and other whitewater sports. Remember... use your brain the next time you decide to make a helmet purchase.

[Source: New York Times]

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