W/r/t your life insurance finds out your safety equipment was in violation of posted rules...and they pin loss of life on it
This is quite possible, "contributory negligence" is claimed to reduce the award value. IMHO an insurance company is likely to use this as a bargaining chip, regardless of what actually happened, and let your lawyer argue that the accident was fatal regardless of helmet quality.
The question of "is a helmet that expired yesterday more dangerous than one still legal?" will be fun to watch. These are frequently decided on this basis: "what engineering data and destructive test results were used to determine exactly when a helmet has decayed significantly? (exactly 730 days, not 729)".
The surprising answers come back:
1. "we were told..."
2. "we just made it up, after that big donation from the helmet manufacturers"
3. "none ever actually failed from a crash, but we had to say something"
4. "we read about a helmet settlement in Kazakhstan in 1986 from a WW2 helmet, so we made it different"
Wasn't the best best money helmet can buy really helpful to Dale Earnhardt?
The weight of the helmet actually contributed to his death. The sudden stop tried to yank his head off his neck. Just as it did Adam Petty, Clifford Allison and Kenny Irwin Jr. Without a Hans device probably all the drivers would've died regardless of what helmet they were wearing.
I also believe the lack of a full face helmet played a significant role in his death, Dale being the only driver in the race wearing an open face, to the consternation of Nascar, and it's nuanced IMO his face struck the steering wheel, something a HANS would have mitigated. This is also why I believe, the first person's reaction to Dale's wrecked car understood the obvious seriousness of Dale's injuries, and why autopsy photos were so diligently guarded.
NASCAR no longer allowed open face helmets on the track.
