Inside the Impact: Innovations in Automobile Safety and Crash Injury Prevention (1950s)

[Applause] [Music] la what you just heard were two accidents the first was the car crashing into an object the second was the car's occupants being thrown against parts of the car's interior or being thrown through open doors under the highway it's this second accident this accident inside an accident that causes human injuries when a car hits a tree and stops suddenly the passengers continue moving forward forward that is until they strike something inside the car like the steering wheel doctors automobile designers policemen researchers are vitally concerned with their problem of Crash injuries actually automobiles have never been safer based on miles traveled accidents have declined 57% in the last 20 years yet accidents continue to happen because human error can't be completely eliminated the problem is this 38,000 persons are killed each year and 1 and A4 million injured the question is what can and is being done about it here is Dr Russell Harris was called out last night to treat the injury case you witnessed this morning he and his wife are on their way to the annual Convention of the American Medical Association Dr Harris is particularly interested in the part of the convention that concerns crash injuries he knows that researchers working with doctors and policemen have studied thousands of actual accidents and compiled revealing statistics about what happens to people inside a car that crashes but he wants to see and understand it in more detail from the scientific exhibits he will see and the medical papers he will hear to find out specifically about the extent of the problem he and John O Moore director of Crash injury research at Cornell University Medical College go onto the actual convention floor to see Lieutenant Frederick Maguire Dr Harris asks how critical crash injuries are to the Armed Forces well about onethird of all our Hospital admissions are due to motor vehicle accidents and about 85% of all our off-duty Hospital admissions are due to the same cause and these men when they do get on the sick list spend an average of 42 days there in the Korean War for example we took up on the sick list twice as many Marine Corps and Naval Personnel due to motor vehicle accidents then were placed there because of enemy action from reports like this Dr Harris obtained a clearer understanding of the problem involved its immensity its total effect then he asked about the all important Cornell statistics on Crash injuries and how the statistics are collected Mr Moore explained that to collect the facts doctors and police in States all over the nation carefully studied thousands of individual accidents and make detailed reports to train Cornell researchers then Mr Moore took Dr Harris to Sergeant Elmer Paul of the Indiana State Police one of the groups that makes crash injury facts available Sergeant Paul explained how the reports were filled out at the local level this is the vehicle Report that Trooper completes about Crash damage collapse of structure he also lists the causes of the injuries then we have the medical report which The Physician completes the actual injury itself as the talk continued Dr Harris satisfied himself that the crash injury statistics were as valid as they were vital then at the Cornell booth on the convention floor he asked well Mr Moore how would you sum up the Practical results of your work in facts and figures well Dr Harris I would attempt to do it this way when the passengers are thrown out of the vehicle 54% of them suffer a modate through fatal grade injury but when the passengers remain inside the protective body of the car the percentage of people suffering moderate through fatal grade injuries drops to 24% less than half in other words you're twice as safe if you stay inside the car during an accident then Dr Harris asked if staying inside the car was enough how do people who remain inside get hurt well Dr Harris we found that 40% of all drivers who are hurt are hurt by being thrown against the steering wheel suffering primary injuries of the chest about 38% of the passengers in the right front seat are injured by contact against the instrument panel Mr Moore explained that using these recent findings automobile safety Engineers work to develop devices to protect the passenger in the event of an accident specifically the engineers work to reduce injuries from the parts of the cars singled out by the Cornell statistics the steering wheel the instrument panel or by ejection from the car here for example is a new steering wheel being tested in the laboratory and crash padding for the instrument panel after years of laboratory tests the devices were tested in actual and violent crashes at the test track Engineers here are putting electronically wired dummies into cars that will be be crashed together this will be a typical intersectional crash this car will be hit on the front quarter by the car coming down the [Music] track in slow motion now notice how the safety belt protects the right front seat Dummy from the windshield while the unbelted dummy in the driver's seat crashes into the sunv and windshield area and here is the same crash as you would see it from the rear seat 20 ft to go each dummy and each car is literally covered with devices to let the engineer know what forces are Unleashed in the crash here is a crash into a barrier Dr Harris now knew how the crash injury statistics told autom Engineers which parts of the car caused the most injuries and he could see how the engineers used the statistics to develop the new safety devices for a closer look at them he returned to Sergeant Paul's exhibit and asked for a description of the devices available here we have the new door lock which is an improved version over last years we have a crash pad on the instrument panel which will absorb for Force mhm we have the safety belt to the forced ejection of occupants we have here the padded sun visor which will protect the head and the forward impact and we have the new steering wheel with the recessed Hub which is much better than a previous type steering wheel so Dr Harris saw that something really significant already had been done to reduce the problem but acid doctor he wanted to know what he could do in his day-to-day work to help to get the answer he sought out Dr Fletcher Woodward chairman of the American Medical association's official committee on medical aspects of automobile injuries and deaths Dr Harris asked about the role of a busy physician a physician should be interested both in the prevention of these accidents as well as in the definitive care of the engine and in consideration of prevention he we should consider these conditions of the nervous system for instance does the patient have epilepsy is this patient scile he should also consider the question of his cardiovascular system these things are all important at times in the causation of automobile crashes you should also be very careful as to the types of drugs that you may prescribed especially the drugs so commonly used today the tranquilizing drugs and the antihistaminic drugs these drugs at Times May interfere with dver skill you should also consider the question of the special sensus for instance Vision peripheral vision central vision and the other special Senses particular the hearing and the question of vertigo another thing that he should pay particular attention to is if a patient asks him doctor am I fit to drive a call well doctor this is the type of information I've been hoping to find that these exhibits and here at the convention at the special medical Symposium on automobile crash injuries Dr Harris heard 11 papers that dramatized The Firm resolve of American doctors to play an increasing role in the progress being made and he heard the automobile industry commended for its major contribution to that progress finally he heard Dr Woodward propose the formation of a national Foundation like the polio Foundation to coordinate the work of all groups interested in reducing highway accidents so that still more knowledge can be gained and more progress made then Dr Harris went to the Ford scientific exhibit where he saw solid examples of the progress being made by the industry to reduce Highway injuries and deaths and he heard a report on a speech given by Henry Ford II at the national Safety Forum in Dearborn Michigan when the five safety devices were first introduced furthermore we wish to announce that all of the pioneer safety features and the specifications and design of those features developed by Ford Motor Company are to be made available to any automobile company that wants them well to me this is pretty solid evidence that these people mean exactly what they say yes and those devices are based on design criteria that was gathered by police Physicians and researchers cooperating in local communities just like yours Dr Harris now tell me Mr Moore do you have any statistics from the field on the effect of these devices I mean do they actually reduce injuries in case of accidents yes for the first time since these protected devices were introduced last fall we can State clinically that the severe crushing injury to the chest of the driver has been reduced by 1 half by the safety steering wheel the new safety door locks have significantly reduced the frequency of door openings during impact in fact in non overturn accidents some designs have reduced this occurrence by 60% we have the same trend from seat belts the energy absorbing instrument panel and visor padding are having a marked effect in reducing the frequency of the lactive type injury of the face and head in our opinion if we could suddenly equip all 50 million of the vehicles on our highways with these properly engineered devices the safety steering wheel the safety door lock the seat belt and the instrument panel and visor padding we could expect to reduce by 1/3 the crash injuries we see this would mean that 1 half million persons annually would Escape injury and the great proportion of all of our deaths will be reduced to recoverable injury well that's very encouraging but what about the future Where Do We Go From Here the future the future will be written tomorrow next month next year and on and on it will be written by the many hands of progress inspired by dedicated and inquisitive Minds by the the researcher The Physician the policeman the automobile engineer and most importantly by you the driver the one with the most to gain in presenting this film The American Medical Association acknowledges the cooperation of Ford Motor Company and its contribution to passenger safety