The crash test dummy: A life in slow motion
Author: Chris Barker
Published: 19 August 2008
RESOURCES AND LINKS:
There are many unsung heroes that stroll through every day life unnoticed. Never seeking recognition or financial recompense in return for their dangerous duties performed as a matter of course, we’re naturally building up a suitable metaphorical drum roll for crash test dummies.A small, yet determinedly select, band of unique civilians who beaver away undeterred by the twin constraints of having no visible reproductive organs and an unsightly radiation logo superimposed close to their temples.Working effectively behind the scenes of many a future car production, crash test dummies continually make light of an occupational hazard that would put off the majority of (slightly less) level-headed individuals.Choosing to shun the glare of publicity, crash test dummies by and large have always done exactly what you think they have. And scarily what they’re told, once they were positioned in the no-going back driver’s seat of a Hyundai Pony, grabbing onto anything close at hand to delay the inevitable.
Author: Chris BarkerPublished: 19 August 2008
Haven’t
you ever wondered what happens inside a car when it crashes in a none-weirdo
way that is? Just how the cars we all drive cope with the most extreme road
conditions we hopefully will never have to endure.Well, this band of merry men
knows first, second and seventeenth hand, seeing as they make their livings
from such activities. Even their offspring’s are born into the fold and know of
nothing other from an early age than how best to smash their resin-manufactured
skulls to smithereens on the back of an Austin Montego’s driver’s rear headrest
at speeds approaching 30mph.Whilst
men in white coats armed with clipboards stand, point and tut at the mess
they’ve caused.As we
know this is all done in the name of our safety. Possibly there’s an element of
black humour to it, but MT doesn’t think it’s wise to venture down that path.
Not all the way.All
modern day automotive manufacturers have impressive car safety testing and
development facilities which allows them to hone new vehicle’s road safety
appenditure and accident aversion techniques. And when this is satisfactory
achieved, car makers offer up near-finished vehicles to Euro NCAP and other
worldwide industry standard vehicle safety bodies to implement its rigorously
demanding real-life scenario re-creating procedures. And then award the car
some ticks or crosses based on the outcome of its findings, which will ultimately
make or break its chances of sales success.One of
those vital tests is just how a 172lb piece of life size and moulded resin
sculptured into the vague shape of a human being reacts to hurtling towards a
monumental slab of bricks and mortar at speeds in excess of 40mph, proceeding
without due care and attention so as to make bruising contact with said
obstruction to an otherwise smooth journey. The answer – as you’d expect – is
not very well. But it would be a whole lot worse if it wasn’t for the plastic
family strapping themselves down in a seating configuration that aims to instil
a degree of confidence in the normally aspirated driving public.With air
inflated protective cushions emerging from all angles around occupants to avoid
grazing, it goes without saying that these unflinching volunteers had to
represent and replicate as best they could your average human’s structure, bone
density and general flimsiness.Published: 19 August 2008 RESOURCES AND LINKS:
Humans volunteered as crash test dummies in early days of car safety testing
But of course, this couldn’t be always guaranteed. And in the early days before dummies were settled on as the definitive answer – becoming part and parcel (smashed thorax, spleen and vertebrae for the most part) of the car safety testing scene – scientific/engineering background independent car safety testers called up on other, slightly more disturbing alternative means of determining the threshold before which damage/discomfort/separation of useful limbs took place.The solution was three-fold. Cadavers, animals and human volunteers. It’s said that for 15 years a Biomechanics Professor from Wayne State University in Detroit, America donated his body to pioneering human impact survival research. Only he was still using it for the daily commute, to maintain relationships and essentially go about his business.From 1960 to 1975 Professor Lawrence Patrick gave permission for various areas of his body to physically calculate the effects of being subjected to damage similar to what vehicle occupants might endure in the event of an accident. Basically this amounted to being hit in the chest by a 22-pound metal pendulum, to thrust his kneecap repeatedly against a metal bar and to undertake 400 rides on a rapid deceleration sled that mimics the effects of a vehicle sustaining a head on crash with a wall. All in the name of research.Unfortunately staged damage to the basic dummy previously on offer could only illustrate so much in a crash re-creation scenario, and couldn’t really demonstrate quite how much third party impact the human body – and specifically major components and organs - could counter. So step forward Prof. Patrick. Gentleman, scholar and crackpot, who let’s hope left leave his ‘hobbies and interests’ section on his CV blank.For example, car testers need to ascertain the maximum impact that a rib cage can withhold and compress, before the squigee, wet things just beneath the surface come into play. That’s two and three quarter inches just for the record. And the velocity in which a car travels before the human cranium will force its way through a typical, circa-1964 windscreen. 12.9mph apparently. Someone had to determine this.Prof. Patrick went as far as to admit he often felt ‘a little sore’ after some of his exertions, and he’s often invite his students at the time to join him at the vanguard of crash safety testing, although many were surprisingly slow on the uptake.Obviously there was only so much the living human body could handle before it became redundant – or obsolete - and that was just after part two of the chilling study, suggestively titled, the ‘Mechanism of Fracture. Which involved a pneumatically-powered rotary hammer. And a volunteer’s face (there’s that curious word again).This point registered the re-introduction of cadavers, which – to some effect – had been given the green light hitherto. Or for those with a squeamish disposition yet not a medical dictionary, a recently deceased human. Although used years earlier in the capacity of chief safety testers – a role which predominantly centred around being dropped down an unused elevator shaft to ascertain impact damage – they were again utilised for the inevitable hit and highly irregular miss of deceleration sleds, head-pounding steel pendulum, windscreen strength and mock road junction safety tests, as cadavers offered more variety higher up the potential injury range. Where those with a pulse and expired medical insurance plan ducked out.Naturally this somewhat macabre act in the on-going pursuit of road safety measures wasn’t universally greeted with applause by those dwelling on the moral and ethical high-ground. Yet testing was completed under strict supervision and under comprehensive regulation, with respect to the dead paramount in the minds of all those involved.Hence the subject’s faces being covered and all being dressing sympathetically in stretch leotards for the occasion.Although there were drawbacks. Stiffness being chief among them, what with corpses not exactly being big on suppleness. And primarily the fact that they could generally be used only the once. All manner of tricks of the trade were applied, none of which we’re at liberty to go into, suffice as to say natural parts might have been replaced with other, synthetic parts to cushion the blows. But for a raft of reasons – the main one being a shortage of participants willing or otherwise – impact survival work drew to a close in the 1950s, and eventually fell to animals to fill in the missing blanks.It wasn’t long then before chimpanzees were riding rocket sleds, bears were performing on impact swings and pigs were harnessed in behind steering wheels. Although this had absolutely nothing to do with a bizarre circus act and everything to do with saving humans lives. And as soon as animal welfare groups caught a whiff of what was going on they were up in arms. Primarily about animals dislodged arms and such like. Pigs were particularly popular due to their internal organ configuration bearing remarkable similarities to humans. At least when they were on their insides.But we don’t want to dwell on how we arrived at crash test dummies as being the one and only remaining means in which to safely test cars which will hopefully be sitting on our driveways 12 months down the line. We’re just glad that they did make it. And believe they should be celebrated, pictorially on a dedicated motoring website. So here we go.’Sierra Sam’ flies the car safety flag as world’s first authentic crash test dummy
1949 saw the advent of ‘Sierra Sam’ - the grand daddy of crash test dummies - which bore little resemblance to what’s used today, and was invented with the sole military aviational purpose of testing aircraft ejector seats. Sierra Stan came along soon after, a competitor dummy with new and improved features that the manufacturer hoped would grab the attention of the burgeoning motor industry that were said to be on the look-out to develop their own death-proof mannequin. Sadly, General Motors considered Stan to be sub-standard in its own right, so copied it to create the Hybrid I in 1971. A 50th percentile male dummy – a more average human reckoner – as opposed to Sierra Sam who was a cumbersome 95th percentile bloke who was both heavier and taller than 95% of the male populace at the time. So pretty useless all round.GM agreed to share the ground-breaking DNA of Hybrid I with other car manufacturers, and shortly afterwards created a crash-happy Eve for its new automotively-inclined Adam. Not everyone was content with the technological advances – thinking they weren’t advanced enough – and so a year later Hybrid II was christened. But again, no matter how shiny and new – and that would be short-lived – Hybrid II was still relatively crude in its design and capabilities as far as car safety testers were concerned, keen to placate its audience with evidence that a dummy could re-enact what the human body has to endure in the event of a collision. Thus far, the Hybrid collective’s activities were limited to the less harmful implications of seat belt design.1976 saw the introduction of the Hybrid III, what we all know and admire as the most familiar crash test dummy on our roads. Although not literally. He’s 5 feet 6 inches – if he could straighten his back – and weighes in at an average 172lb. And now he’s in the family way, courtesy of the CRABI twins. CRABI being the acronym for Child Restraint Air Bag Interaction.Hybrid III - and its European Side Impact Detection partner in arms the EuroSID II - is the modern day dummies that have accumulated the most air miles on their famously short-haul travels. Both dummies possess a steel skeleton with a rubbery skin stretched over, which are crawling with 44 sensory-acknowledging data channels – wired to recording equipment in the rear of the car - for the recording of collision data. The rubbery flesh apes the human bone structure, and each sensor elaborates on the severity of every injury sustained and how it would be reflected in a more lifelike subject. They are fully clothed to minimize any friction which could hamper true results.Hybrid III is responsible for front end damage limitation exercises, and is the proportional representation of Mr. Average. But it’s fully adjustable to cover a full range of contemporary shapes and sizes. They mostly congregate in the front driver and passenger seats, whilst EuroSID II is a European new-comer who majors in side-impact testing and optional pole-impact tests. Excepting the cranium, his recording instrumentation differs wildly from Hybrid III.CRABI P1.5 and P3 are child-sized dummies, and typify the size and weight of an 18 month old and three year old infant respectively, and are normally seated to the rear for each car tested.Each dummy costs over £100,000 to construct, and is extremely sensitive to temperature change. Too much heat – or too little – could account for inaccurate data received and deciphered, so after every few tests dummies are inspected and re-certified. Given a clean bill of health if you like.The Millbrook manufacturers testing facility even offers a crash test dummy maintenance and calibration portakabin - a bit like one of those spooky toy hospitals you sometimes see an advert for - where they even ‘hire out’ dummies.With the crash test dummy future shaping up to be almost entirely virtual, reliant on computer generated genetical improvisations to conduct the testing rigours, it looks like crash test dummies as we know them might be forced into retirement sooner rather than later after subsequent lifetimes of unequivical service.For the time being though, and Volvo has even created the worlds first pregnant crash test dummy, whilst Honda and Toyota have developed pedestrian dummies. Although this may not have needed that much development over what’s gone before. The ability to stand, rather than sit still and not fidget too much perhaps.Either way, MT salutes the crash test dummy for its unenvied, yet critically vital work in the field. Or the hedge. Or wherever else the indestructible crash test dummy comes to rest, so we don’t have to.
See Also:
Click here for more Safety stories
Click here for more Technology and engineering stories
Top ten TV car adverts
Ever the staple of the pub chinwag, TV ads are more and more part of our sphere of consciousness – often irritatingly so. Think Honda, Volkswagen and Citroen.
Best car safety test crashes
Watch the best car safety test crashes on the internet.
Mercedes pile-up at safety demonstration
The new Mercedes S class has a sophisticated radar-based braking system - when it works. A demonstration ended up in a 3-car pile-up filmed by German TV.
Celebrity Sat-Nav
Do you want a satnav voiced by Tony Blair, Ozzy Osbourne, Joanna Lumley, Patrick Stewart, Sean Connery or Mr T? Why not treat yourself to a celebrity voice telling you to navigate the wrong way down a one-way street then?
Richard Hammond injured in car crash
Richard Hammond is reportedly in a critical condition after suffering serious injuries driving a jet-powered Vampire car while filming for Top Gear.
advertisement
Jaguar has introduced the new performance-orientated diesel XF S – which also returns an impressive 42mpg. | 05/01/2009
The Audi R8 V10 will offer all-LED headlamps as standard in 2009, paving the way for the introduction of LED headlamps on more Audi models. | 05/01/2009
Rolls-Royce has unveiled a special-edition Phantom as part of its Bespoke Collection in the shape of the Phantom Sapphire. | 05/01/2009
Audi has added more Coupe and Roadster TT variants, with the addition of the new S line specification and more quattro models, available from 1 January. | 05/01/2009
Audi will launch Black editions of its A3 in three-door, five-door and cabriolet guises. | 05/01/2009
|05/01/2009
Rolls-Royce has unveiled a special-edition Phantom as part of its Bespoke Collection in the shape of the Phantom Sapphire.
|05/01/2009
The Audi R8 V10 will offer all-LED headlamps as standard in 2009, paving the way for the introduction of LED headlamps on more Audi models.
|05/01/2009
Audi will launch Black editions of its A3 in three-door, five-door and cabriolet guises.
|05/01/2009
Audi has added more Coupe and Roadster TT variants, with the addition of the new S line specification and more quattro models, available from 1 January.
|05/01/2009
The Association of British Insurers have revealed that an increasing amount of people are jeopardising their insurance cover by lying or failing to disclose information.
|01/10/2008
Euro Car Parts has acquired Pinco 1555 Ltd, including all 53 of LSUK's 53 branches, together with subsidiaries M I Diesel Products, Protech Automotive (UK) and Yeovil Rewind.
|20/11/2007
Around 400 people a day risk damaging their car by misfuelling, and filling up with gas is a mistake that could cost thousands. So what do you do if you´ve filled up your diesel car with unleaded petrol?
|06/12/2007
Fuel protests similar to those that brought the UK to a halt in 2000 are being planned by a breakaway group of disaffected hauliers, according to press reports.
|07/10/2008
Euro Car Parts has put out a statement on the closure of LSUK, stating that a closure of the business was unavoidable due to a 'lack of support'.
|06/10/2008
LSUK, thought to have been rescused by Euro Car Parts, has been unexpectedly closed by the new owners with the loss of over 600 jobs.
Search Motortorque:
No readers comments
Be the first to write a comment on this article