How are crash tests conducted?

How are crash tests conducted?

James Bell (Publisher, Auto Reviewer) gives expert video advice on: How are crash tests conducted?; Where would I find crash test results on specific vehicles? and more...

When crash tests are conducted, if it is a side impact test, they'll have the car parked, roll cameras all around it, and, then run something like a big cement pylon to mimic another car coming at it at different speeds. They'll do five miles an hour, ten, fifteen, twenty, and then get the results from that. They put dummies in there and videotape them to see, for example, how far their head snaps back. In crash tests they'll put paint on the sides of dummies' heads to see where they hit in the car and to see what the structure is going to do to the vehicle and the real person's body as well. Then, in a front impact crash test, they usually put the vehicle on a track and drive it into a post – either straight on or slightly offset, then measure what the impact energy does around the vehicle, again hoping that most of it is transferred around the vehicle and not to the driver.