Der 7. Sinn Human Crash Checks from the Seventies and Eighties

Again in 2017, I touched on a collection of crash exams executed by the German TV present Der 7. Sinn in 1982 that have been designed to indicate the advantages of seat belts. But it surely seems that wasn’t the one time that they put actual reside human beings within the driver’s seats of automobiles to showcase the advantages of seat belts. They did this on a minimum of three episodes, in 1976, 1982 and 1987. 

Let’s take a look at the 1976 episode first. Warning: there may be some considerably graphic content material (bloody accidents and bare mannequins)

The message is obvious: put on your seat belt, or you might be thrown out of the automotive even in a low velocity collision. 

The intense crash exams begin, quite all of the sudden, at 2:28. We’re handled to a Ford Taunus P7 (comprised of 1967-1971) slamming into the rear of one other automotive at a excessive velocity; the video’s narration states that the automotive was going 80 kph / 50 mph, though that is seemingly earlier than the motive force hit the brakes. Nonetheless, the influence was fairly extreme: the entrance finish was crushed by a few foot, and the automotive is clearly totaled. The influence velocity was seemingly round 55-65 kph / 34-41 mph. The influence is described as being equal to a fall from 25 meters / 82 toes, or 8 tales. 

At 4:02 we see our subsequent check – one other Taunus, with an actual life driver, T-bones a automotive obscured from view. The influence velocity is probably going about 50 kph / 31 mph, and the motive force’s door and windshield are each eliminated so we will see the motive force’s motion. Following that we return to our first Taunus crash, with an inside view that reveals the motive force’s head being thrown ahead perilously near a steering wheel replete with metallic edges earlier than unbuckling the belt and climbing out of the automotive. In case you watch in gradual movement at 4:08 – 4:10, you’ll be able to see that the motive force’s head comes inside a couple of inches of that wheel and will have even hit it. They actually had quite a lot of religion in that seat belt! 

Following this check, we see one other stuntman unbuckle the belt and escape from a sinking Volkswagen Beetle after which one other run a Citroen DS off the street and rapidly unbuckle the belt and escape from the DS earlier than it caught fireplace. I am 99% positive that fireplace was staged. 

The human crash exams begin up once more at 8:23. We see an Opel, driving at 40 kph / 25 mph, hit the roof of a stationary automotive that had been turned onto its aspect. The injury is pretty minor, and the motive force is unhurt. 

At 9:57, we see an orange automotive roll down a hill. The automotive rolls twice; regardless of the windshield being thrown from the automotive and a number of other inches of roof crush, the motive force will get out and walks away. 

Seat belts save lives – even in automobiles that at the moment are over a half-century previous. However, trying nearer, we will see that they “stacked the chances” in favor of their drivers as a lot as doable, which was essential because of the primitive state of automotive security on the time. For one, our three most extreme crash exams – the 2 frontal exams and the rollover – have been carried out in order that the injury can be targeting the passenger’s aspect of the automotive. The frontal exams have been at a few 30 diploma angle; the rollover check had the motive force’s aspect go down first, as a result of it is the alternative aspect that may endure essentially the most roof injury. The drivers additionally have been clearly bracing onerous towards the steering wheels. 

The angle of the frontal exams had one other, much less apparent, profit: as a substitute of the drivers’ heads transferring instantly ahead towards the middle of the steering wheel, they moved to the suitable as properly, giving treasured additional inches to decelerate because of the Pythagorean theorem. If the steering wheel is, say, 40 cm / 15.75 in in entrance of the motive force, including, say, 15 cm / 6 in of rightward motion offers 42.72 cm / 16.81 in of room to decelerate, along with making any head influence extra more likely to be a glancing blow. And each millimeter counts if you’re on the limits of a automotive’s design to guard you.