AIIMS, Aussie institute to develop low-cost, airy helmets

AIIMS in collaboration with Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia is working towards developing low-cost helmets having better ventilation for Indian weather conditions, which is mostly hot and humid.
"We are working closely with the Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia to develop helmets which is light and airy so that people do not feel uncomfortable putting it on. The reason is that a country like India has a climate which is not very congenial for a helmet for at least nine months. As it is uncomfortable, people do not wear helmets.
"So if we come up with a helmet which is light and airy and also strong, many people would use it without any hesitation," AIIMS Director M C Mishra said.

About 377 people die on Indian roads every day -- the world's highest fatalities in road accidents, according to 'Road Accidents in India 2013', a report by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
Experts say many of these deaths and injuries can be brought down if people riding two-wheelers wear helmets.
Apart from this, AIIMS in collaboration with Monash University, Melbourne is doing a long-term research project in trauma systems. Under 'Australia India Trauma Systems' collaboration project, the apex trauma centre will try develop a national trauma registry for the country.
"The aim is to develop a national registry so that we can have a good robust trauma data composed of uniform data elements that describe the injury event, demographics, pre-hospital information, diagnosis, care and outcomes of injured patients.

"Although we have an institutional registry, we want other small hospitals to also collect data and provide us so that a national policy could be formulated by analysing it," AIIMS spokesperson Amit Gupta said.