Americans are getting fatter — and so are the crash test dummies used to test the cars they drive.
Michigan-based Humanetics has introduced a new obese dummy to reflect Americans' growing size. The 273-pound dummy — officially called an anthropomorphic test device — is 106 pounds heavier than the traditional model, reflecting public health trends.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 34.9 percent of American adults — an estimated 78.6 million people — are obese. Humanetics president and CEO Chris O'Connor explained that how they fit in the seat, how their different centers of gravity could translate into car crash injuries, and how seat belts and air bags work on them are different enough to warrant a new dummy body type.
A University of California-Berkeley study published in 2013 found that obese drivers are up to 78 percent more likely to die in car crashes.
Note that the new obese model is also 5 inches taller than the more commonly used 5-foot-9 version. It costs the same amount as the normal-weight dummy — $500,000 — and according to O'Connor, can be re-used for decades.
Humanetics, believed to be the nation's only designer and manufacturer of crash test dummies, was founded in 1952 to make what were then called mannequins to test airplane ejector seats, but added car crash test dummies in the 1960s, according to O'Connor. Today, it has 500 employees, supplies OEMs, Tier 1 safety suppliers, government agencies and medical researchers and has an estimated $125 million in annual sales.
Its dummy lineup also includes women and children of various ages. They're made of metal bones wrapped in vinyl with rubber in certain joints and then loaded with sensors, O'Connor explained.
"Safety continues to evolve. A five-star rating from five years ago is probably a three-star today, because the bar goes up," he said. "We need to have safety for all body types. We want everyone to be safe."
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is planning to check out the new model, but isn't sure it will be a buyer.
