When automakers and safety advocates show off the results of crash tests, they inevitably feature videos of their cars crashing into things, with or without dummies aboard. Back in the 1980s, federal safety regulators even turned a pair of crash test dummies into the stars of an ad campaign. What the industry doesn't like talking about is how much safety innovation was developed testing cadavers.

Cadavers have been essential to making driving safer since the 1930s, when researchers at Wayne State University threw a body down an elevator shaft to determine the forces it could endure. Every part of a car touching on safety — from steering columns and laminated windshields to side-impact air bags — drew from tests with cadavers to ensure they work.

More recently, Ford's been heavily promoting the inflatable rear seat belts in the 2011 Explorer. Ford says the feature provides five times the protection of a conventional belt. Less heavily promoted is the fact human cadavers played a role in their development.

"It's still very important," said Priya Prasad, a former top safety researcher at Ford, of using cadavers. "Even though we have very good math modeling of dummies, human modeling hasn't reached that state yet."

Automakers prefer to distance themselves from such ickiness. When a Swedish researcher told the newspaper Expressen in 2008 that General Motors and Saab were using cadavers in research, both companies quickly denied the story. And as far as the denial goes, it's true: Automakers don't have the medical resources that cadaver tests require.

But universities do. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration funds scores of cadaver tests annually; many of those schools also receive grants from automakers. The data they gather can be shared widely.

That's the case with Ford's inflatable seat belts, an idea Ford has tested for several years. The 2011 Explorer will be the first vehicle to offer the technology, and Ford has made the belts a highlight of the safety features offered to compete against other family haulers.

But before the system could be sold, Ford had to answer myriad questions. Just because the belts use air bags didn't mean they would do a better job than the seat belts we've been using for more than 50 years. It could even be worse. For example, what would happen to children sleeping on the belts when they inflated?

Most of Ford's tests used the family of conventional dummies developed by the industry, including ones that mimic children. But without a cadaver test, Ford couldn't know for sure how the inflatable belt might affect internal organs and tissues.

Typically in cadaver tests, such as the test pictured here by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, researchers swaddle the body, including the head, in stockings both for scientific reasons and out of respect. The arms and hands, if present, are bound to keep them still. Sensors record the forces on various parts.

After the test, researchers likely would have used X-rays and autopsies to examine any damage to the cadaver. Ford shared the results with NHTSA but deemed them confidential business information, so they aren't accessible under a Freedom of Information Act request. But given that the inflatable airbag safety belts will be in the new Explorer, it's reasonable to assume the tests were successful.

Universities that run such tests have standard procedures for handling cadavers, and they cover everything from telling donors' relatives how the body will be used to disposing of the remains afterward.

Ford spokesman Wes Sherwood said the company, like others, is moving toward digital modeling whenever possible. It's far cheaper to run thousands of computer simulations than to do even one test with a dummy. And of course simulations and dummies are far more appealing to the general public than cadaver tests. It's no wonder automakers are reluctant to publicize their continued, and necessary, use.

"If there's a specific need (for a cadaver test), we will look outside the company to see if someone can help, but most of our work is digital," Sherwood said.

Albert King, a professor at Wayne State who has been working in cadaver research since 1966, said the school's tests had fallen off in recent years. It used to do an average of one cadaver test a month; it now conducts no more than a few each year. He outlined the benefits of such work in "Humanitarian Benefits of Cadaver Research on Injury Prevention," a paper the Journal of Trauma published in 1995. King estimates that safety advancements made as a result of such tests through 1987 saved 8,500 lives a year.

A big reason for the decline in testing? After six decades, there's not much left to be done improving safety inside the car. Even the cheapest cars offer as many as eight air bags, so most research has turned toward how to prevent crashes in the first place.

"We have most of the information we need," King said. "The rest of it we're doing through computer."

It's not just cars that benefit. Researchers have drawn on Wayne State's cadaver work to design helmets that might prevent concussions in NFL players. NASA has used cadavers to test vehicle crashworthiness, and the Defense Department backs studies using cadavers to better understand traumatic brain injuries. And as good as computer models are, they still can't capture the exact essence of how human tissue reacts, Prasad says.

"It's always a good idea when you're developing something to do cadaver testing," he said.

This story was written by Justin Hyde and originally published by Jalopnik on Aug. 26.

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