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Web information proves inaccurate

Monday, March 10, 2003

By Jonathan D. Silver, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Sharp-eyed Pittsburghers might have noticed over the last month that the snowy streets have been absent police officers straddling motorcycles.

It turns out that on Feb. 11, the unit was grounded after Pittsburgh police supervisors grew concerned that their helmets did not meet either federal safety guidelines or contract specifications.

Their decision was based in part on Internet research that indicated that the helmets were illegal. It turns out that's wrong.

"This is the model number that failed the safety standards," Sgt. Reyne Kacsuta said recently, holding up a Bell Pro Police helmet, model SD600V, at the traffic division's Strip District headquarters. The back of the helmet bore a silvery sticker with the letters "DOT" - Department of Transportation.

Kacsuta and her traffic officers came to that conclusion after mining the Internet for information and stumbling onto data warning them away from the Bell helmet.

Once Kacsuta found out there might be problems with that model of helmet, which just about all the motorcycle officers have, she contacted Assistant Chief Nathan Harper. After an investigation, Harper ordered the motorcycle officers off their bikes until the department received new helmets for the 22-member squad.

Did grounding the fleet impact the orderly flow of traffic? Not really. The motorcycle officers were reassigned to cars, which might have been a necessity anyway on some of the iciest days of the year.

But the cost for new helmets and communications gear installed in them came to about $10,000. After the order was in, police learned that the Internet information indicating that the old helmets were unsafe was, according to the federal government, incorrect.

They're standing by their decision, saying enough questions were raised about the helmet to justify scrapping it.

Kacsuta praised Harper for acting quickly in the interests of officer safety, and the motorcycle unit applauded its sergeant for taking the matter to the top brass.

"Your head is the most important thing. You crush your head and you've got problems," explained officer Sean Pindel, a motorcycle officer for five years who is so safety-conscious that he dons a $300 helmet in his off-hours while riding his Harley.

The fuss began around Christmas when officer Paul Kaylor went to buy a new helmet in the one-stop shop for local law enforcement, North Eastern Uniform and Equipment in the Strip District. After finding a model SD600V helmet without a Department of Transportation sticker, he started surfing the World Wide Web for information.

Kaylor chanced upon a Web site run by the Massachusetts branch of the Alliance of Bikers Aimed Toward Education -- called ABATE -- a group of motorcycle enthusiasts which lobbies for repeal of mandatory helmet laws.

He found something interesting there -- a list of helmets that failed certain tests conducted under the auspices of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. On the roster was a 1998 Bell Pro Police SD600V, which flunked a performance test.

Kacsuta sent Harper a memo earlier this year notifying him of the squad's findings. Harper put Lt. Karen Dixon in charge of investigating. By Valentine's Day, the motorcycles were idled.

Harper said he was concerned that a store tried to sell a helmet without a DOT sticker.

Randy Smith, president of Utah-based Bell Pro Police Products, said all SD600V models have DOT stickers that couldn't just simply fall off. Why the sticker was missing is unknown. Managers at the uniform store refused to meet with a reporter.

In the course of investigating, police realized that almost all the helmets in use were the same year and model as the one that failed the test, according to Harper. If one helmet failed, weren't all of them suspect?

In order to qualify for DOT certification, motorcycle helmets must meet certain standards.

Critics complain that the government relies on the honor system; manufacturers do their own testing and, once satisfied that their product meets certification standards, slap a DOT sticker on the helmet.

"There's no DOT inspector in Detroit checking each car as it comes off the line. That's the way all the standards are," said Tim Hurd, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "They know at any point we can check their records. They know at any point we can buy a helmet."

This they do, though by no means does the government check every manufacturer every year. The last time they tested Bell Pro Police helmet model SDV600 was in 1998, as they discovered by perusing the Web.

What the police didn't find out on the Internet, however, were the steps taken by the government to follow up.

Four of the helmets were tested that year. One of the helmets failed one type of test, in which a helmet attached to a fake head -- the total weight is 11 pounds -- is dropped on an anvil from 30 1/2 inches. A government letter to Bell mentioned "possible noncompliances" with testing standards.

"There was one test result that didn't match up. That happens a lot," Hurd said. "That doesn't mean it's failed the standard. It means we want to check up on it."

Bell told the government that out of 304 impacts on 38 helmets, there was only one failure. The data satisfied the government that the helmet was safe and it wasn't necessary to continue investigating.

"We followed up. We got information from the manufacturer. We closed the case. We did not find that it was in noncompliance," Hurd said. "It's in compliance with the safety standards."

Asked about the results of the government investigation, Harper and Dixon said they did not know that the helmets had been found in compliance.

"We were unaware there was nothing wrong with that helmet," Harper said.

In Dixon's eyes, however, the bottom line remains the same: The SD600V should not be used by Pittsburgh police.

"What was the failure for? Impact. We have a failure for impact, and we have materials we didn't spec. National Highway tested and comes up with a failure. The company tested and comes up with a failure," Dixon said.

With both the government and the company showing a failure, "why would I take a helmet? Wouldn't we be better grounding the bikes and taking a helmet we know didn't have a failure?"

Dale Perrett, director of the city's Department of General Services, said the ultimate responsibility for determining whether equipment ordered in a contract meets the contract's specifications lies with the end user. In this case, that would be the Pittsburgh Police Bureau.