Protective helmet with emergency removal feature

Claim 1

A multiple-piece helmet for protecting a head region of the wearer and providing emergency removal, said helmet comprising: a rigid rear helmet portion; a separate rigid front helmet portion; said helmet portions having interior and exterior surfaces and inter-protruding guide means for aligning said helmet portions together along a seam therebetween; securing means extending between said helmet portions and holding said portions together in a releasable manner; said securing means positioned on said interior surfaces, and finger access ports in said helmet for providing finger access to said securing means from said exterior surfaces whereby said securing means may be finger manipulated for thereby releasing said securing means and completely separating said front helmet portion from said rear helmet portion without requirement of a tool; said securing means including multiple snap-fit finger latches, each having a flexible stem secured at a proximal end thereof to the interior surfaces of one of said helmet portions, and a latch tooth laterally protruding from a distal end of each of said stems and received in a corresponding latch recess in the interior surfaces of the other of said helmet portions, said ports positioned whereby said stems may be engaged through respective ports from said exterior surfaces by ones fingers for thereby flexing said stems to disengage said latch teeth from their respective latch recesses for separating said front helmet portion from said rear helmet portion.