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Crash Test Lab Discovers Seatbelt Dangers
Lab Focusing On Side Crashes
POSTED: 6:08 p.m. EST January 22, 2003
MILWAUKEE -- A lab inside a building on the Veterans Affairs Hospital grounds in Milwaukee is making history.
Doctors and engineers are smashing cars to learn what effects the crashes have on people. It is one of the few places in the nation that does car crash tests to see how safe they are for people in cars.
The lab has already discovered that seat belts worn improperly can cause serious injuries, even in low-speed crashes.
"We're interested in preventing injury. That's our focus," said Dr. Dennis Maimon of the Medical College of Wisconsin and Froedtert Hospital.
The lab is one of only a handful of crash testing labs in the nation. It's the only one not funded by automakers.
It's also part of the national hospital study called CIREN, Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network.
Researchers analyze thousands of actual traffic crashes to see how seriously the people were hurt.
CIREN recently released breakthrough research that showed how you wear your seat belt has as much to do with saving your life as anything.
"A lot of people do this even now. They wear their shoulder harnesses and they don't wear their seat belts or vise versa. And this was the first time it was shown with very strong evidence that that may be more dangerous than nothing," Maimon said.
Researchers found that even in low-speed crashes, not wearing the lap belt can cause injuries to the liver.
That was a remarkable finding, and a piece of information that you can only get from CIREN, which looks at large numbers of accidents after the fact, Maimon said.
Now they're focusing on side crashes, using dummies to test which air bags prevent the most injuries.
The figures are high-tech pieces of equipment that start at $30,000 each. They're designed to gauge exactly how the body would react in a crash, television station WISN reported.
"The best thing to do is prevent an accident, but if you can prevent injury in an accident, we're ahead of the game. Better vehicle restraints better understanding of what happens to people in car crashes will lead to better vehicles and better restraint," Maimon said.
This year the lab will crash another 10 to 12 cars. For more information on the crash tests, you can visit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Web site.
Lab Focusing On Side Crashes
POSTED: 6:08 p.m. EST January 22, 2003
MILWAUKEE -- A lab inside a building on the Veterans Affairs Hospital grounds in Milwaukee is making history.
Doctors and engineers are smashing cars to learn what effects the crashes have on people. It is one of the few places in the nation that does car crash tests to see how safe they are for people in cars.
The lab has already discovered that seat belts worn improperly can cause serious injuries, even in low-speed crashes.
"We're interested in preventing injury. That's our focus," said Dr. Dennis Maimon of the Medical College of Wisconsin and Froedtert Hospital.
The lab is one of only a handful of crash testing labs in the nation. It's the only one not funded by automakers.
It's also part of the national hospital study called CIREN, Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network.
Researchers analyze thousands of actual traffic crashes to see how seriously the people were hurt.
CIREN recently released breakthrough research that showed how you wear your seat belt has as much to do with saving your life as anything.
"A lot of people do this even now. They wear their shoulder harnesses and they don't wear their seat belts or vise versa. And this was the first time it was shown with very strong evidence that that may be more dangerous than nothing," Maimon said.
Researchers found that even in low-speed crashes, not wearing the lap belt can cause injuries to the liver.
That was a remarkable finding, and a piece of information that you can only get from CIREN, which looks at large numbers of accidents after the fact, Maimon said.
Now they're focusing on side crashes, using dummies to test which air bags prevent the most injuries.
The figures are high-tech pieces of equipment that start at $30,000 each. They're designed to gauge exactly how the body would react in a crash, television station WISN reported.
"The best thing to do is prevent an accident, but if you can prevent injury in an accident, we're ahead of the game. Better vehicle restraints better understanding of what happens to people in car crashes will lead to better vehicles and better restraint," Maimon said.
This year the lab will crash another 10 to 12 cars. For more information on the crash tests, you can visit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Web site.
