HUMAN CRASH TEST DUMMY

DOI: 10.4324/9781003239284-25

Lawrence Patrick strapped himself into the seat and waited for the heavy metal pendulum to crash into his chest. Would it break his ribs? Would it crush his lungs? Would he live through the test?

During the 1960s, Patrick and his team of young researchers acted as human crash test dummies. They took hits to the chest from a 22-pound pendulum. They had their faces smashed with “gravity impactors,” and Patrick took 400 rides on a rapid deceleration sled that mimicked a car crashing head-on into a brick wall. It was all for the sake of improving automobile safety.

Seatbelts were not standard equipment in automobiles until the 1960s. People didn’t understand that that little strap of cloth could save them from serious injury or death. Many people believed that safety came from a bigger, stronger car. But scientists were concerned because as cars got bigger and able to travel at faster speeds, there were more and more deaths from auto accidents.

They had their faces smashed with "gravity impactors," and Patrick took 400 rides on a rapid deceleration sled that mimicked a car crashing head-on into a brick wall.

Researchers like Patrick needed to learn what effect a crash had on the human body and what would protect it. Crash test dummies had been invented during the 1950s, but they did not have sensor indicators. Inventors needed data that they could only get from human bodies.

They first tried doing experiments with live pigs because the internal anatomy of a hog is similar to that of a human. But the external anatomy of a pig is just too different, so they had to get information from human beings. When the testing was going to be too dangerous for living humans, they used cadavers. Patrick and his team learned how much pressure it took to crack a human skull by dropping a human cadaver down an elevator shaft.

Although it sounds gruesome, these tests were incredibly important. They taught scientists just how much the human body could withstand and set standards for vehicle safety. They also helped in developing dummies with readable sensors so that future humans would not have to serve as live crash test dummies.

Amazingly, Patrick survived all of the tests and lived to be 85 years old. He was awarded the A.W. Siegel Award for outstanding international research and contributions to crash injury protection. Every person who clicks on a seat belt has Lawrence Patrick to thank for making us a whole lot safer.

WHO'S DRIVING THAT CAR?

Inventors are still looking for ways to improve car safety, and their newest invention is the driverless car. The car uses GPS and computers to guide the car. Eventually, scientists plan for the cars to be able to talk to each other so there will be no need for traffic signals. Many people today are afraid that the computers might make a mistake or get hacked and cause an accident. But scientists point out that most airplanes fly on autopilot, and it has made air travel much safer.