When did we stop using corpses to carry out car crash tests?

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"It happens once in a while, late at night, alone in front of my computer, to watch compilations of car accidents on Youtube. I start to watch. And there I am completely terrified and at the same time completely hypnotized . So of course I feel a little guilty, but I tell myself that this morbid curiosity is very natural. We know almost nothing about what happens when we die, so we will glean information where we can, as in car crash compilations, plus that makes sense because statistically it's one of the leading killers of young men like me. 

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But the danger on the roads is still lower than before.

In 1972, in France, there were 18,000 deaths on the roads.

Today, there are six times fewer deaths, even though we drive many more kilometers.

How to explain this change?

One of the main reasons is that today, when you have an accident, cars no longer bend like soda cans.

In addition, we are very well strapped inside and inside.

All of these things, the deformation of the vehicle, the seat belt, the airbag, were patiently worked out using fake metal or plastic people, which in English are called Crash Test Dummies.

In French, these are shock test dummies.

These mannequins, usually bald, look perfectly serene when put in cars.

And then we rock these cars at 80 km / h against concrete walls, and we look at how broken the mannequins are, which gives us an idea of ​​how much real living people would be broken in their place. 

Initially, we used corpses

But where do these models come from?

As often, from the United States.

In the sixties there, it was rubbish.

There was no safety device in the cars.

And then, little by little, Americans said to themselves 'Still, it would be good if we died less'.

In 1966, a law was passed called the National Traffic and motor vehicle safety act.

From there it becomes mandatory for car manufacturers to pass safety tests which are the same for everyone.

Problem: Builders can't just take people alive, force them into accidents, and see if they die or not.

And say to themselves: "Well, we're going to take people who are already dead."

So in the 60s, they take corpses, put a lot of sensors in them and kill them a second time by crushing them against walls.

But that poses two problems.

First of all, these corpses are not all the same size or weight, and it is therefore difficult to compare the tests.

And above all, once the dead person is completely broken after hitting a wall in the mouth, it cannot be reused. 

A first test created in 1968

The solution was therefore to make a mannequin that had as many characteristics as possible in common with a real person and that could easily be repaired when it was broken.

The one that is considered the ancestor of all contemporary crash test dummies was created in 1968 by an engineer named Samuel Alderson, who named his model VIP.

VIP had a rib cage with steel ribs, but still a flexible spine and joints.

Little by little, we improved it, and we made it more and more realistic.

We put more and more sensors in it, and above all, we gave it a woman and children crash test dummies.

Even today, every day around the world, this model family gets their mouths crushed in terrifying accidents so that we can survive when it does happen to us. "