HumanCrashDummy

I have already provided my first born

By accident... Just kidding, I was a police officer in San Diego and worked in the Accident Investigation Bureau and was offered a job in the private sector as an accident investigator. I took that job which lead to a teaching job - teaching accident investigation - which lead to research. Driving in crash tests is part of the research. It’s a lab. Like dissecting a frog in biology class or mixing chemicals in chemistry lab, conducting a crash test is a lab. Just on a larger scale. So, when I started teaching accident investigation and analysis, I argued that we needed a lab and a crash test is that lab in accident investigation. Because moving a lot of equipment around is costly and the classes are often taught on location at different police departments, we had to find a way to get a car into the crash and it fell on me to do it so I drove one car into another. That was in 1994 and today I have some 967 crashes behind me.

Well, there was this 5th percentile female dummy that one time....no, not so much.

54 miles an hour into another car which resulted in a "change of velocity"of about -20 miles an hour for me. We often think of crash severity in terms of "how fast" someone is driving. In reality, crash severity is defined by what's called "Delta-V" or the change of velocity in a crash. Think of it this way, I can drive 54 miles an hour into another car and be slowed by 20 miles an hour or I could drive 54 miles an hour into a wall and be slowed by 54 miles an hour. The speed going in is the same, it's the effect of the crash that makes the one with the barrier more severe.

Who fights a duck?

Actually I am new to reddit. I have just been browsing for a day or two. My sons are redditors and they said I should do an AMA. I guess I fit in here.