Drivers name... Florian Pratt .....
and he was.
Airbag jackets have been around for a while,. and are standard issue for Moto GP riders these days. When I first looked at them, there was just no way I could afford one. Paying over 1K for a jacket with what was then a fairly unproved piece of kit.
Now they can be had for £300-£400, which makes them really quite affordable.
You can get vests that go under your existing gear...or jackets with them incorporated. Systems were either mechanically triggered ( with a cord you clip on) or else by accelerometers. Takes about 30kg of pull on a cord to trigger the mechanical systems, so you won;t do it by accident if you forget to unclip.
The rider in that video was lucky....the impact threw him over the car. These airbags are designed to cushion impacts with the road. Hitting a solid object ( like an oncoming car) full on, nothing is going to soak up the kinetic energy from the impact to save the fleshy bits. But, surviving a crash is all about improving the odds, and I am in favour of anything that does that!
MCN did a little article on them that is fairly good.... including listing a few and telling you the cost of re-gassing the system if you trigger it.
https://www.motorcyclenews.com/news/new-tech/motorbike-airbag-vests/
