If you have seen the videos of car accidents in the testing phase, you will have noticed that it is not only done in closed rooms full of cameras and sensors. If not, there is also a kind of mannequins sitting in cars. These are called dummy and are key in the study.
Since the 1970s, crash test dummies – mechanical stand-ins for the human body – have been used to determine the safety of automobiles. These tests determine the effectiveness of seat belts and the security elements of the new vehicles.
Until now, the most widely used mannequin was based on the average build and weight of men. However, women make up about half of all drivers and are more likely to be injured in similar accidents.
The mannequin that is sometimes used as a substitute for women is a reduced version of the male mannequin the size of a 12-year-old girl. With a height of 149 cm and a weight of 48 kg, she represents only 5% of women by today’s standards.
However, a team of Swedish engineers has finally developed the first mannequin, or to use the more technical term – seating assessment tool – designed on the body of the average woman. His mannequin measures 162 cm and weighs 62 kg, which is more representative of the female population.
How are accidents measured scientifically?
Several times a day traffic accidents are simulated and their consequences are analyzed. The manikin’s sensors and transducers provide potentially life-saving data by measuring the precise physical forces exerted on each part of the body in an accident.
The responsible team records data such as impact speed, crush force, bending, body torsion and braking speed. His goal is to see what happens to the dummy’s biomechanics during low-impact rear-end collisions.
According to US government data, when a woman suffers an accident of car have up to three times more likely to sustain whiplash injuries in rear impacts than a man. Although whiplash is not usually fatal, it can cause physical disabilities.
These statistics are what drive Astrid Linder, director of road safety at the Swedish National Institute for Road and Transport Research, who leads the main investigation, as narrated on the BBC.
Dr Linder believes her research can help determine how cars will be designed in the future and highlights the key differences between men and women (height and muscle mass). The accidents of traffic can be safe if we improve in the road safety.
Source: computerhoy.com
