Bambi assists kids lifejacket development

New children's lifejacket from Helly Hansen

People wishing to take young children boating can now be more assured of their safety thanks to Helly Hansen's innovative KidSafe lifejacket. They will also be safe in the knowledge that this unique lifejacket has exceeded international safety standards due to the use of a pioneering life-size test doll. This is an international first in the field of buoyancy aids.

KidSafe has a large, foam-filled head support (collar), which keeps the head out of the water and prevents water from entering the mouth and nose. The front of the lifejacket is shaped to ensure stability when the child is floating on its back. This unique feature, which resembles a keel, makes the lifejacket extremely unstable when floating face down and initiates the rapid turning process, to turn the child safely onto its back. Other lifejackets are flat on the front, so are generally too stable when floating face down, and therefore too slow to turn the child.

KidSafe is available in two sizes: for infants and children from 5-15kg and 10-25kg.

A leading producer of PFDs for more than 100 years, Helly Hansen's KidSafe is the result of two years of product development and testing and sets new standards for performance and safety. KidSafe dramatically exceeds the international standards for self-righting (the ability of the lifejacket to turn the child to a safe position in the water). It turns a child faster, even when held back by clothes, than any other lifejacket on the market.

The KidSafe lifejacket has benefited from a new method of testing with the development of the new life-size test doll, which has been nicknamed 'Bambi'.

'Bambi' was developed for ethical reasons. Due to the danger of endangering life by testing lifejackets on children, infant and junior lifejackets have never been properly tested to CE regulations. This prompted independent tests and resulted in the EU launching a project to develop a test doll following some of the principles used in the car industry, where dolls are used for collision tests.

The test doll showed, in an objective way, what testing with children had indicated, namely that the lifejackets on the market were underperforming on self-righting, stability and freeboard.

Soon after this became known, Helly Hansen took action to develop a completely new lifejacket. "Having been the market leader for so many years, we didn't want to be told that our lifejackets had questionable function, despite being tested and apporoved according to the CE standards," says Karl-Einar Jensen, Marketing Manager for Helly Hansen.

Early in the process Helly Hansen contacted the test institute Thelma As in Trondheim, an institute with expertise in floating products. Thelma was the first institute to gain access to 'Bambi', so was able to conduct the most accurate testing ever seen in the industry.

"I have often expressed my concern at the lack of quality in the testing of lifejackets for infants and children," says Arvid Paasche, Director at Thelma. "Testing Helly Hansen's prototypes on the "Bambi" doll provided some interesting challenges - but the result is that the brand has now developed a lifejacket with scientific results that far exceed anything you will find in the children's lifejacket industry today."

The lifejackets are available in fluoro orange or water print colour and in 5-15kg and 10-25kg size. They are approved to CE standard EN395. Retail price is likely to be around 59.95 Euros.