May 01, 2006

After Penn State University student-athlete Kevin Dare was killed in a pole vaulting accident in early 2002, his father, Edward Dare, and Penn State athletic director Timothy Curley organized a meeting to address safety issues in the track and field event. Immediately following this meeting, several attendees met at the spring 2002 meeting of ASTM International Committee F08 on Sports Equipment and Facilities, where the initial groundwork was done on a standard for pole vaulting helmets. That standard, F 2400, Specification for Helmets Used in Pole Vaulting, has now been published.

Peter McGinnis, professor, department of exercise science and sports studies, State University of New York College, Cortland, N.Y., says that, following Dare’s accident and the deaths of two high school pole vaulters that same spring, several states or state high school athletic federations passed laws or rules requiring high school athletes to wear helmets while engaged in the sport.
 
“The primary impetus for developing F 2400 was that, if states mandate helmet use in pole vaulting, what helmet is appropriate?” says McGinnis, a member of the task group that developed the standard. “States that require helmets in pole vaulting may now be more specific in what helmets they require.”
 
Specification F 2400 is under the jurisdiction of Subcommittee F08.53 on Headgear and Helmets. All interested parties are invited to participate in the ongoing standards development work of F08.53.
 
ASTM International standards are available from Customer Service (phone: 610/832-9585; https://www.astm.org/contact/) or at http://www.astm.org.

For further technical information, contact Peter McGinnis, State University of New York College at Cortland, Cortland, N.Y. (phone: 607/753-4800; pmcginnis@cortland.edu). Committee F08 will meet May 16-18, at the May Committee Week in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. For membership or meeting details, contact James Olshefsky (phone: 610/832-9714; jolshefs@astm.org).

Release #7412