GoPro shares tanked more than 10% in early trading today after French F1 commentator Jean-Louis Moncet told radio station Europe 1 that the problem for Schumacher was not his fall but the GoPro camera he had mounted to his helmet.
A report in The Telegraph back in February revealed that ski and climbing academy ENSA is conducting tests to determine whether the GoPro camera worn on Michael Schumacher’s helmet may have weakened it. In the ski accident he suffered in the French Alps on Dec. 29, the helmet he was wearing (which sported a GoPro camera) split in two while the camera remained intact. Schumacher suffered severe head injuries, emerging from a medically induced coma in June.
According to the report, experts were exploring whether “a solid object between a helmet colliding with a rock would weaken the structure.”
It’s strange that the camera should get the blame instead of the helmet. Maybe ski helmets should be made of whatever material the rugged GoPro camera is made of. Of course, the problem was his fall on a rock. But it does raise the question as to how best to safely mount a camera onto a helmet so as not to weaken the latter structurally or the camera becoming a danger to the wearer. In any instance, this applies to any helmet camera, not just GoPro cameras.
via Yahoo!
