Car and Driver: Meet Graham, The Human Designed to Survive Car Crashes

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-This is Graham. Graham has trouble getting dates, and he’s not sure why. Is it his fat, bulbous head? Or perhaps it’s the fact that his face looks like it had an anvil dropped on it and his ears seem to be retreating from yet another Colt Ford abomination. Or maybe it’s all of those extra air sacks lining his rib cage and the fact that his hoof-like legs are, well, hoof-like?
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We’re kidding, of course. Because in another world—one where humans have evolved as fast as automobiles have—Graham might be the perfect specimen. This is according to Australia’s Transport Accident Commission, which had a trauma surgeon, a crash expert, and a Melbourne-based artist team up to design a car-crash-proof human. The TCA is known for its penchant for shock, and Graham is part of its new Toward Zero road-safety campaign.

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Graham getting ready to binge watch the newest season of Orange Is the New Black.

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“The truth is, our cars have evolved a lot faster than we have,” says David Logan, a team member on the project and road-safety engineer at Monash University’s accident research center. “Our bodies are just not equipped to handle the forces in common crash scenarios.”

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To deal with these forces, the team came up with Graham. Protecting his brain is a much larger skull intended to absorb forces and fracture upon impact. His face, concave and fatty, is less likely to be damaged. Instead of a silly wobbly neck, he doesn’t really have one at all, reducing the potential for spine and back injuries. His skin is also thicker to prevent lacerations, and his ribs have a layer of external sacs for maximum protection.

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An extra joint in Graham’s lower leg allows him to spring out of the way of an oncoming car.

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Graham isn’t just designed to survive a crash from inside a car either. His legs were constructed with pedestrian collisions in mind as well. His lower ankle area has an extra joint for increased mobility, and his knees are incredibly flexible in case of an impact.

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The below videos further explain how the team went about the project, and for a more thorough look at Graham and all of his physical upgrades, head on over to the Toward Zero campaign’s website. There’s an interactive 360-degree presentation of Graham along with research notes and even more videos—in case you haven’t seen enough of him yet.

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• Fatal Tesla Crash Won’t Slow Federal Push for Autonomous Cars-
• Body Scanners: Why Human-Body Modeling Is the Future of Automotive Safety-
• Safety for Some: Are Electronic Driver Assists Really Available for Everyone?-

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The below videos further explain how the team went about the project, and for a more thorough look at Graham and all of his physical upgrades, head on over to the Toward Zero campaign’s website. There’s an interactive 360-degree presentation of Graham along with research notes and even more videos—in case you haven’t seen enough of him yet.

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Designing Graham:

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Designing the face:

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Designing the neck:

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Designing the rib cage:

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This story originally appeared on Road & Track via The Guardian.

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