RETROSPECT

Crash impact: Driven to save lives

by Carolyn Wavrin

The letter from Athelstan Spilhaus suggested somewhat wryly that perhaps Professor James J. Ryan’s crusade for auto safety should begin a bit closer to home. Spilhaus, dean of the Institute of Technology at the time, even offered a practical solution.

“I am sending you a copy of the description of an anthropomorphic test dummy put out by a firm of which a friend of mine is director of research,” Spilhaus wrote to Ryan on December 30, 1952. “It occurs to me that you might wish, in the course of your automobile crash experiments, to destroy a dummy before proceeding to living destruction tests.”

Although “Crash” Ryan was behind the wheel of test cars that slammed into concrete barricades behind the University’s mechanical engineering building, no doubt his dean was the one left with a headache. The mechanical engineering professor earned his nickname by putting his middle-aged body on the line in the interest of auto safety. He conducted dozens of hands-on crash tests that made him a campus legend during the 1950s.

In experiments conducted indoors, sleds were driven into a barrier with Ryan—restrained by a seat belt, of course—at the wheel. In another test, an empty vehicle was dropped from a crane to the ground to simulate a crash speed of 40 miles per hour.

“Cars are a deadly weapon now, and everyone should know as much as possible about them, especially what happens during crashes,” Ryan told the Minnesota Daily in October 1952.

Ryan eventually abdicated the role of test subject in favor of human-size dummies and remote-controlled “crash cars,” but his dedication to the cause of auto safety never faltered. His research led to improvements in shock-absorbing hydraulic bumpers, recessed dashboards, collapsible steering columns, and safety seat belts—and generated public support for establishing minimum safety standards for cars.

Ryan retired from the University in 1963—the year he obtained a patent for the first automatic retractable safety seat belt. Just three years later, Congress passed legislation authorizing the federal government to set and regulate standards for motor vehicles and highways. Experts today estimate that the safety belt has saved more than 195,000 lives from 1975 to 2004.

“I don’t think we can say enough about his contributions to the safety of the vehicles we drive every day,” said Max Donath, mechanical engineering professor and director of the University’s Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Institute. “He created a lasting legacy of what University of Minnesota research has contributed nationally.”

Despite the remarkable success of these safety measures, motor vehicle crashes are still a leading cause of unintentional injury-related death in the U.S. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 43,005 people died in crashes in 2002. For people ages 3 to 33, crashes are the leading cause of death.

The University continues to be a leader in transportation safety research. ITS, part of the Center for Transportation Studies (CTS), recently received a five-year, $16 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to conduct a wide array of transportation research focused on using technology to enhance safety and mobility. The grant will fund efforts to improve understanding of traffic behavior through improved sensing, Global Positioning System devices that improve feedback to drivers, and measures designed to predict and avoid rear-end crashes.

In Ryan’s day, auto safety efforts focused primarily on the vehicle, but transportation data shows that driver error is the direct cause of most crashes and resulting fatalities.

Donath said current research focuses on human-centered technologies that enhance driving ability and reduce driver error caused by distractions, fatigue, and difficult driving situations.

At CTS, affiliated faculty from 25 departments in seven colleges study such issues as driver behavior, assistive technology, vehicle design, public policy, transportation system design, and problems unique to rural and urban areas.

Thanks to modern technology, researchers can study the interaction between people and today’s complex transportation systems—without risking life and limb. The centerpiece of the HumanFIRST (Human Factors Interdisciplinary Research in Simulation and Transportation) laboratory is a state-of-the-art multimedia driving simulator used by engineers, computer scientists, and cognitive psychologists to study driver performance.

Motor vehicles may be safer than they were in “Crash” Ryan’s day, but research shows that in the hands of distracted, inexperienced, or impaired drivers, they are still deadly weapons.

To determine what happens during a crash, the intrepid Ryan put himself in the driver’s seat and his personal safety on the line. CTS researchers have at their disposal a range of technology he could never have imagined, but Ryan’s legacy—the zeal for saving lives—remains the driving force behind transportation studies at the University.

FOR MORE INFORMATION see www.its.umn.edu.