This thread :eek: http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?703085-WARNING!-KEP-riding-hat-safety-please-open is a trainwreck of epic proportion and important to consider if you have or are considering a KEP helmet.
The other day I get an email from one of the riders in my barn. It’s a video link and the message “is this the Spanish girl?”
The Spanish girl, or the “Al Queda rider”, as she is known by my neighbor, shares a yard with us. She is well-known for her suicidal take on show jumping.
The video shows a nasty rotational fall in show jumping. And yes, it’s “our” spanish girl.
I am horrified by the video. Really, it’s pretty awful.
And my friend adds “I can’t believe she still never wears a helmet” (except to show).
Imagine my surprise while reading through the H&H thread to see the KEP Italia response, highlighting this rider and this video in particular. I could go out and ask her right now, but I’m pretty sure if her helmet had shattered when her head hit the ground (as did the OP’s in the H&H thread), she most certainly would not have lived when the horse smashed down on top of her head.
I think she wears a Samshield now anyway…when she bothers to wear a helmet.
I’ll stick to my not-so trendy Charles Owen, thanks.
Wow, thanks for posting that–that’s just horrifying. Both the photos at the beginning of the thread and the customer service response at the end.
Whoa.
The PR mismanagement of this is really horrific.
There could be reasons for what the helmet did, from damage due to improper storage to manufacturing fault (I assume from reading the part about testing specs that it’s not actually designed to come apart on one impact, as one of the specs requires it being dropped 4 times?), but the response from the company rep would be enough to never consider this product.
[QUOTE=skydy;8225705]
This thread :eek: http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?703085-WARNING!-KEP-riding-hat-safety-please-open is a trainwreck of epic proportion and important to consider if you have or are considering a KEP helmet.[/QUOTE]
Any idea where the KEP responses are? That’s a 21-page thread. Give us a hint.
They start pretty early and continue through the thread, Anne. Near the end they get to “if you have questions and concerns please contact us via email” but that’s really late in the game after they state that the OP is lying, or “misremembers”, or my favorite, “improperly fastened the harness”. I mean who knew that if you improperly fasten the harness your helmet can shatter like a chocolate egg??
Oh, geez. Yikes. Looks like my lunchtime reading is set.
Thanks, ladyj79.
The thread is terrifying and I urge anyone who is interested in buying one of those helmets to read it for themselves. I will give the cliff’s notes version of the companies terrible responses but first it’s important to note that the helmet fell apart around the riders head during what she said was a minor fall that occurred after her horse tripped while trotting on grass. There are pic’s on the other thread of the helmet but it looks as though it disintegrated. It’s pretty bad. The rider suffered a bloody nose and swelling/bruising on her forehead.
The companies responses…
-to tell the customer their policy is that she would have to return the helmet and they will either send a new one or REPAIR the old one. :eek:
-to start posting a bunch of positive customer reviews in an attempt, in my own interpretation at least, to discredit the OP.
-to say that she should be thankful the helmet disintegrated because disintegrating helmets save lives, as when the helmet disintegrates it absorbs the shock of the impact rather than the riders head absorbing the shock of that impact.
When people stated that the worst riding falls involve multiple impacts to the head, such as a rotational fall and getting dragged by a foot in the stirrup, and that a disintegrating helmet wouldn’t help you in those situations, it mostly went ignored. The only time it wasn’t was when the company responded by posting a video of a rider who was apparently wearing one of their helmets during a rotational fall when it looked like the full force of the horse came down on the riders head. (This is the video ladyj79 is referring to in this thread.) The company was trying to prove that the helmet saved this riders life but the video did not show the condition of the helmet (or rider) post fall.
-to say that the customer must have taken a very serious fall instead of a minor one. She either lied, had a brain injury or was a little out of it after the fall so she couldn’t really remember how the fall happened. To which the customer responded by saying that after the fall she immediately stood up, typed in the pin code to get into her locked cell phone and called for help to catch her now loose horse.
-One of the members of horse and hound forum, who was sticking up for the customer claims to have been sent a nasty pm from the company, where she was threatened with litigation if she didn’t stop sticking up for the customer.
Of course these statements here are a paraphrase of the thread on horse and hound and some of it is based on my interpretation of the behaviors of the customer and company. It’s a fascinating/terrifying read. I only wanted to post the shortened version for anyone who doesn’t have the time to read the thread. If anyone reads it and disagrees with what I have said here or wants to add something please feel free to state that and I will gladly edit my post.
The rotational fall link is in Post # 72. If the crunching sound is that helmet falling apart it sounds like a very cheaply made helmet.
Wow - kinda off topic - but that video! Looks like another case of a horse getting its shoe caught on a girth clip / martingale loop etc. We had that happen to an eventer recently - but luckily the horse yaked its shoe off and managed to stay upright.
As for the helmet - I do not like how the shell appears to be made of multiple glued together parts - where the seams are, it looks very thin. I know all of the helmets I have ever owned have a single piece shell.
Yes, the horse put its leg through the martingale. You can see the helmet is still intact after the girl hits the ground, but the video ends when the horse flips over onto the girl…who was just outside my door…moving a mattress. I could go ask hahaha but then I’d have to explain why haha let’s just not buy these helmets.
wow I will never buy a KEP based on the company’s responses to that thread. I don’t particularly like the helmets anyway, but that really sealed the deal!
Here’s the rotational fall video.
Crunch.:eek: Glad she was okay! Now, what about the horse?
That was a horrific fall. How is the horse?
A few years ago I got a new helmet, a cheap schooling Troxel. I, stupidly, left it in the car for a couple weeks since I boarded at a different place than where I took lessons, so it was easier to move my helmet around by just leaving it in the car. Well of course the glue started to melt and seep around the sides (it was summer in SoCal, I’m surprised the helmet didn’t melt into a puddle of goo tbh). I contacted Troxel to see if I could get a discount on a new one, knowing that it was 100% my fault, but being a poor college student anyway I figured I would try.
They offered a free replacement if I sent them the helmet for further testing, despite the fact that I was fully honest about it being my fault and that I had left it in the car. If a company selling a $50 helmet cares that much about studying potential issues, why the heck isn’t a company like KEP doing the same thing??
Talk about a scary video!
Kep has shot at hemselves in the bunz. Take a page out of companies with great customer service, Krep, er Kep.
I have no words for the reaction from the company. Regardless of how, what, or why she fell, the reality is the helmet came apart. They need to figure out WHY!!
The reason may very well be rider error (she does state in her initial posts that it is an older helmet that she had not used much because her horse was injured). So there could have been temperature, moisture, etc that caused the helmet to lose integrity.
Regardless, this is a learning opportunity for them, not an opportunity to try to drown the concern in multiple posts of user testimonials and threats.
Good grief.
[QUOTE=Bristol Bay;8226730]
Here’s the rotational fall video.
Crunch.:eek: Glad she was okay! Now, what about the horse?[/QUOTE]
HOLY SH!T!
http://the900facebookpony.com/2015/07/14/kep-italia-buyer-beware/
Blogger covers well, including "KEP also posted this text from their helmet’s instructions, which indicate that this helmet is in fact DESIGNED to destruct upon impact.
“Although this helmet reduces the chance of injury, in some circumstances injuries cannot be prevented. This helmet was not designed to protect your head if crushed by a horse. The degree of protection provided by this helmet depends on the circumstances of a particular accident. Using a protective helmet does not always prevent death or long-term disability. This helmet is designed to absorb the energy of a blow through partial destruction of the shell or protective padding material or both. This damage may not be visible and therefore any helmet, which suffers an impact, should be discarded and replaced by a new one as it may have exhausted its ability to absorb further shocks.”
