P
Pulver
Guest
Crash lab researchers no dummies
(KRT) It's one of the most dangerous parking
places in the nation.
Every car left there is broadsided at 38
mph. And yet, 10 or 12 cars still wind up at
this spot each year, waiting to be smashed
in the inevitable side-impact collision.
Of course, only a dummy would sit in one of
those cars. In fact, two dummies sit in each
car. And they keep sitting in cars parked in
the same jinxed parking place, no matter how
many times they're hit.
None of this happens by accident. It is,
however, designed to find out what really
does happen by accident.
This is the Vehicle Crashworthiness
Laboratory at Milwaukee's Zablocki Veterans
Affairs Medical Center, a place where
white-coated researchers work with
crash-test dummies to come up with new ways
to rate the chances of injuries in
collisions.
As a result of the Milwaukee research team's
work, the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration recently added information on
head injuries to its side-impact crash
ratings, said Narayan Yoganandan, biomedical
engineering chairman at the Medical College
of Wisconsin, which runs the crash lab.
That's significant because one-third of
crash-related head injuries are fatal, and
the risk of head injuries is four times
higher in side-impact crashes, according to
research by Thomas Gennarelli, Medical
College neurosurgery chairman; Frank Pintar,
director of the college's neuroscience
research labs; and Yoganandan.
For side-impact crashes, the federal agency's "star"
ratings - in which a five-star rating represents the
lowest risk of injury - are based on the chances of
chest injuries, Yoganandan explained. But now NHTSA is
adding footnotes to those ratings as a heads-up for
possible head damage, he said.
Drivers can see the results of the crash lab's work on
NHTSA's Web site, nhtsa.gov.
Among 2003 sport-utility vehicles, for example, the
Suzuki Grand Vitara 4x4 earned five stars for
protecting back-seat passengers in side-impact crashes
and the Honda Element 4x4 was awarded four stars, but
both ratings have notations warning of higher risk of
head injuries.
Medical College researchers are working with NHTSA to
incorporate the head-injury risks into the regular star
ratings, Yoganandan said.
Researchers also found that the combination of side air
bags and properly worn seat belts helps reduce the risk
of injury, Yoganandan said.
The road to those conclusions leads through a
combination of violent crashes, engineering expertise
and medical research at the crash lab, a $1.5 million
facility where three people work full time, joined by
three to five others for each test, Pintar said.
A total of 15 to 20 people work on various aspects of
the Medical College's crash research, which has been
going on in different ways for more than 20 years,
Pintar said.
To conduct the vehicle crash tests, NHTSA has been
paying the lab $150,000 to $200,000 a year, plus all
the cars the researchers can destroy, for the past
three years, Pintar said. This is one of only a few
federally funded crash labs, and it's the only one tied
to an academic institution that helps analyze the test
results, Yoganandan said.
Each test starts with wheeling a shiny new car into
position at the end of the lab's test track. They're
often top-of-the-line models, and technicians enjoy
sitting in them for a moment before they're demolished,
Pintar said.
"It is sometimes sad to take a brand-new Mercedes or a
brand-new BMW and smash something into it," Pintar
said. A new Ford Thunderbird "was very difficult to
test," he said.
Technicians place one of the lab's six crash-test
dummies in the driver's seat and another in a rear
passenger seat. Each of the $30,000 dummies is made of
metals, plastic and other materials that can withstand
repeated impacts, Pintar said.
"The unique thing about dummies is that they don't
break like we would," he said.
Instead, the dummies are outfitted with sensors to
measure how they would be injured if they were real
people. They're even dressed in street clothes to
increase the realism of the tests.
"We don't drive naked," Pintar noted.
At the other end of the 470-foot track is a wheeled
3-ton barrier, powered by a 270-horsepower motor,
Yoganandan said. That device is made of steel and
loaded with aluminum to simulate the materials in a
car, Pintar said.
Video cameras are placed in the test car, on the
barrier and around the lab, for a total of nine cameras
recording the action at 1,000 frames per second,
Yoganandan said.
One of the first things technicians do after a crash is
to swing over a crane that picks up the test car and
flips it upside down, Yoganandan said. The car's gas
tanks have been filled with a non-flammable fluid, and
researchers check
whether any of that fluid is leaking.
If a leak is detected, "that raises a huge eyebrow
right away," because of the risk of fire, Yoganandan
said. Researchers send that information to NHTSA, which
orders an immediate recall in such cases, he said.
In most cases, no leaks are detected, and researchers
focus on analyzing potential injuries to occupants,
Yoganandan and Pintar said.
Testing usually runs from November through March, using
cars, minivans, SUVs and light trucks from the current
model year, Pintar said.
Scientific research aside, is it fun to crash big metal
things into cars?
"Oh, absolutely," Pintar said. "When you were little,
didn't you like smashing (toy) cars into each other?"
© 2003, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
posted by permission
(KRT) It's one of the most dangerous parking
places in the nation.
Every car left there is broadsided at 38
mph. And yet, 10 or 12 cars still wind up at
this spot each year, waiting to be smashed
in the inevitable side-impact collision.
Of course, only a dummy would sit in one of
those cars. In fact, two dummies sit in each
car. And they keep sitting in cars parked in
the same jinxed parking place, no matter how
many times they're hit.
None of this happens by accident. It is,
however, designed to find out what really
does happen by accident.
This is the Vehicle Crashworthiness
Laboratory at Milwaukee's Zablocki Veterans
Affairs Medical Center, a place where
white-coated researchers work with
crash-test dummies to come up with new ways
to rate the chances of injuries in
collisions.
As a result of the Milwaukee research team's
work, the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration recently added information on
head injuries to its side-impact crash
ratings, said Narayan Yoganandan, biomedical
engineering chairman at the Medical College
of Wisconsin, which runs the crash lab.
That's significant because one-third of
crash-related head injuries are fatal, and
the risk of head injuries is four times
higher in side-impact crashes, according to
research by Thomas Gennarelli, Medical
College neurosurgery chairman; Frank Pintar,
director of the college's neuroscience
research labs; and Yoganandan.
For side-impact crashes, the federal agency's "star"
ratings - in which a five-star rating represents the
lowest risk of injury - are based on the chances of
chest injuries, Yoganandan explained. But now NHTSA is
adding footnotes to those ratings as a heads-up for
possible head damage, he said.
Drivers can see the results of the crash lab's work on
NHTSA's Web site, nhtsa.gov.
Among 2003 sport-utility vehicles, for example, the
Suzuki Grand Vitara 4x4 earned five stars for
protecting back-seat passengers in side-impact crashes
and the Honda Element 4x4 was awarded four stars, but
both ratings have notations warning of higher risk of
head injuries.
Medical College researchers are working with NHTSA to
incorporate the head-injury risks into the regular star
ratings, Yoganandan said.
Researchers also found that the combination of side air
bags and properly worn seat belts helps reduce the risk
of injury, Yoganandan said.
The road to those conclusions leads through a
combination of violent crashes, engineering expertise
and medical research at the crash lab, a $1.5 million
facility where three people work full time, joined by
three to five others for each test, Pintar said.
A total of 15 to 20 people work on various aspects of
the Medical College's crash research, which has been
going on in different ways for more than 20 years,
Pintar said.
To conduct the vehicle crash tests, NHTSA has been
paying the lab $150,000 to $200,000 a year, plus all
the cars the researchers can destroy, for the past
three years, Pintar said. This is one of only a few
federally funded crash labs, and it's the only one tied
to an academic institution that helps analyze the test
results, Yoganandan said.
Each test starts with wheeling a shiny new car into
position at the end of the lab's test track. They're
often top-of-the-line models, and technicians enjoy
sitting in them for a moment before they're demolished,
Pintar said.
"It is sometimes sad to take a brand-new Mercedes or a
brand-new BMW and smash something into it," Pintar
said. A new Ford Thunderbird "was very difficult to
test," he said.
Technicians place one of the lab's six crash-test
dummies in the driver's seat and another in a rear
passenger seat. Each of the $30,000 dummies is made of
metals, plastic and other materials that can withstand
repeated impacts, Pintar said.
"The unique thing about dummies is that they don't
break like we would," he said.
Instead, the dummies are outfitted with sensors to
measure how they would be injured if they were real
people. They're even dressed in street clothes to
increase the realism of the tests.
"We don't drive naked," Pintar noted.
At the other end of the 470-foot track is a wheeled
3-ton barrier, powered by a 270-horsepower motor,
Yoganandan said. That device is made of steel and
loaded with aluminum to simulate the materials in a
car, Pintar said.
Video cameras are placed in the test car, on the
barrier and around the lab, for a total of nine cameras
recording the action at 1,000 frames per second,
Yoganandan said.
One of the first things technicians do after a crash is
to swing over a crane that picks up the test car and
flips it upside down, Yoganandan said. The car's gas
tanks have been filled with a non-flammable fluid, and
researchers check
whether any of that fluid is leaking.
If a leak is detected, "that raises a huge eyebrow
right away," because of the risk of fire, Yoganandan
said. Researchers send that information to NHTSA, which
orders an immediate recall in such cases, he said.
In most cases, no leaks are detected, and researchers
focus on analyzing potential injuries to occupants,
Yoganandan and Pintar said.
Testing usually runs from November through March, using
cars, minivans, SUVs and light trucks from the current
model year, Pintar said.
Scientific research aside, is it fun to crash big metal
things into cars?
"Oh, absolutely," Pintar said. "When you were little,
didn't you like smashing (toy) cars into each other?"
© 2003, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
posted by permission
