This 1954 CBS Television public affairs presentation of the news program “The Search” is titled “Automobile Safety Research” and takes the viewer to Cornell University for a look at the latest in automotive safety. Hosted by revered newsman Walter Cronkite, he explains how an increase in cars on the highway has also led to increased traffic fatalities. There is a scene of a mangled automobile (mark 02:08) as men survey the wreckage and we learn how investigators use highway accidents as “living laboratories” to develop safer vehicles. At mark 04:55 we meet Hugh DeHaven, the so-called “Father of Crash Survivability” who started the Crash Injury Research project at Cornell, and discusses the odds of surviving a crash. Cronkite returns at mark 06:28 to discuss recent discoveries regarding head injuries as a model of a human head is dropped from various heights. Following additional experiments using a sheet metal figure (mark 09:24), researchers explain another way to prevent injuries — the seatbelt (mark 11:15) — a chest pad installed on the steering wheel. There are scenes using full-sized automobiles starting at mark 12:20 that also demonstrate injury scenarios, and we watch the experiment in regular speed plus slow motion. After reiterating the importance of seat belts (mark 18:35), the film continues with an explanation of how research will continue to find new ways to make automobiles safer during Sunday drives, including new padding material, at at mark 20:35 CBS commentator Charles Romine leads a discussion of methods stunt car drivers use to stay safe and how measures can be applied to everyday use.
Hugh DeHaven (3 March 1895 – 13 February 1980) was an American pilot, engineer and passive safety pioneer. DeHaven survived a plane crash while training as a Royal Canadian Flying Corps pilot during the First World War, and became interested in improving human survivability in vehicle crashes. He has been called “Father of Crash Survivability”.
Between 1924 and 1933 DeHaven filed seven patent applications related to his design of a self-sharpening single edge safety razor. Between approximately 1930 and 1936 his De Haven Razor Corporation marketed a number of different models based upon these designs. DeHaven himself retired in 1933.
DeHaven was issued a U.S. Patent for a “Combination shoulder and lap safety belt” in 1955 for the first three-point seat belt. Early in the 20th century, DeHaven established the Aviation Safety and Research Facility at Cornell University. In 1939, DeHaven recommended the use of helmets and seat belts at a 45° angle in airplanes. He created the inertial reel and the concept of the “delethalized” instrument panel.
In 1942, DeHaven started the Crash Injury Research project at Cornell, and published the classic Mechanical analysis of survival in falls from heights of fifty to one hundred and fifty feet. He concluded:
The human body can tolerate and expend a force of two hundred times the force of gravity for brief intervals during which the force acts in transverse relation to the long axis of the body. It is reasonable to assume that structural provisions to reduce impact and distribute pressure can enhance survival and modify injury within wide limits in aircraft and automobile accidents.
In 1950, DeHaven published a report pointing to the second collision and the risk involved in vehicle ejection. He created the concept of “packaging” car occupants. He concluded: In 1953, the project split into two sub-projects, namely the Automobile Crash Injury Research (ACIR) and the Aviation Crash Injury Research (AvCIR) projects.[4] Flight Safety Foundation takes over AvCIR (later Aviation Safety Engineering and Research (AvSER)), and continues the crash survival research started by DeHaven. AvSER is now part of Dynamic Science, Inc.
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