Broken Glass

ride the car get this picture at only 25 mph you're traveling through space at more than 36 ft a second the crash stops the car but you keep going smashing against the car's interior it wasn't until recent years that anyone knew what went on during the split-second duration of an automobile Collision One scientific approach to the problem was begun in 1947 when the state legislature established at the University of California The Institute of transportation and traffic engineering one of whose tasks is to carry on collision engineering research the people of the Institute had learned that the study of Road accidents after they had happened failed to provide certain essential answers and so they developed controlled impact experiments cars Guided by tracks drawn by Toe cables to collide at predetermined speeds and at predetermined points are beginning to provide answers to some of the previously unanswered Collision questions but the most important question has to do with human safety in a collision what happens to the occupants of the car when the experiments were begun this in itself posed a serious problem who would the occupants be here they are anthropometric dummies they're more practical than real people for this job because we can insert instruments in their heads chests hips and thighs to learn exactly what stresses strains and forces they will face in the secondary Collision the Collision inside the car where dummies are damaged and human motorists injured or killed the only effective means of ensuring that the motorist Forward Motion is [ __ ] is the safety seat belt or shoulder harness everyone will agree that good brakes are a necessity for any car safety seat belts and shoulder harnesses are really brakes for the Riders but motorists who are otherwise careful often neglect something important the children to find out what what happens to unrestrained Children during collisions lifelike dolls just about the size and weight of threeyear olds are included as [Music] passengers other dolls simulating babies will also ride during various phases of the tests now everything is in Readiness and what you're about to see will be a unique experience [Music] in these experiments you will see deliberate accidents exactly as they take [Music] place 20 M hour is considered a very moderate speed but here's what happens when two cars meet at 20 mph in slow motion the adults with belts or harness reveal by their motions that strong forces are at work [Music] here while the child with no restraint is thrown forward by the impact and may be very seriously [Music] injured at 30 m hour you'd still consider yourself to be driving at a moderate speed but not through a blind intersection even though you have the right of [Music] way in slow motion photography the impact situation seems to last minutes instead of a second or less the fleeing instant during which most of the damage is done in all of the low-speed crashes the babies would have been injured to some extent and in some instances injuries would probably have been critical the unrestrained child's injuries in the words of the technical reports were indicated as being critical to [Music] fatal for the little girls it could have been the Prelude to Long weeks in the hospital or perhaps their last ride [Music] forever we've been talking about accidents occurring at what we might consider moderate speeds in today's driving even 40 m an hour may seem moderate but a speed of 40 m per hour through Street intersections indicates a reckless disregard for safety and human life you cannot control the speed or the actions of the other driver and he may run that stoplight or stop sign at 40 mph you're traveling at 59 ft a second and if if suddenly you have only the stationary windshield or some other part of the car's interior to stop you the inside Collision could easily be [Music] disastrous equally disastrous would be a collision with the pavement if you were thrown out of the [Music] car in the 40 m per our experiment no seat belts were used and this shows what happens when your car is stopped by a collision and you keep [Music] going [Music] after conclusion of each experimental impact the long careful work of data analysis begins a medical doctor makes an anatomical diagnosis of the damage to each dummy for its suggested relation to human injury pattern translates cific data but Betsy is more of a poignant reminder that it's always particularly whenever Young Riders become traffic statistics at the tights notes are made and photographs taken of every tail including skid marks and even the minor debris of the carefully planned Collision side impact collisions sudden and unhappen at any intersection they're among the most common types sents and cause serious injury and death even when they happen at what we consider moderate [Music] speeds most of us live in areas where there are corners and cross streets or acoss and the largest percentage of all automobile accidents happen within 10 m of home it's the same route we travel every day to work to school to [Music] Market sometimes we cover the ground several times a day we're so used to it that we become inattentive we don't concentrate the way we should and even though we never go over 25 miles an hour we're in particular D at the in urban the end of each block to do it doesn't pay to take him for [Music] granted of a side impact experiments that the one fact that injury if we do become involved in a collision is the safety belt you could wear this precautionary device in all your driving for years and never need it then in one Split Second it could save your life or prevent horrible injury or [Music] disfigurement but the most infallible safety Factor can't be built into the car unfortunately it cannot be purchased as an accessory anywhere because the most infallible safety factor is you yourself when you devote all of your attention to being a really skilled and careful driver on the streets and at the intersections around [Music] home or out on the open highway or the Super [Music] Highway whenever your car is in motion and control of the driving situation is in your [Music] hands [Music]