Being a crash test dummy is definitely no fun, as your line of work more often than not involves plenty of scrapes and knocks all over the place, not to mention being discarded cruelly when your human owners are done with you. Well, all in the name of human safety, so take pride in what you do! Students at Ottawa’s Carlton University have spent the better part of the last 8 months to develop a crash test dummy for bicycles, where it will be able to perform a “Superman” over the handlebars of a bicycle that travels at 25 kilometres an hour (15.5 miles per hour) when it knocks into an obstacle or is knocked – in order to simulate head and neck injuries. Not only that, this particular crash test dummy will also feature sensors throughout the rest of the body in the future to simulate other injuries.
The team of engineers mentioned, “The idea is that we should be able to throw this crash test dummy into whatever situation and get a reasonably accurate result, regardless of whether we know (in advance) what injuries we’re going to have.” Hopefully better protective gear can also be discovered in the process for those of us who love getting around on our bicycles, no?
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