Crash dummies are pricey but allow for extensive data collection. Photo / 123RF
Disturbing footage has re-emerged of real people being used as crash test dummies in the 1970s.
The footage shows volunteers being violently thrown around by cars in their seats during crash simulations in Germany.
It also shows people smashing into other cars with passengers inside, as well as hitting trees at high speed.
The clip first aired on ABC's television program Ripleys Believe It Or Not in 1985 to highlight the importance of wearing a seat belt.
The video opens with people sitting in car seats with seat belts strapped on, simulating the whiplash of a real car crash.
Jack Palance, the narrator of the programme, says: "No matter how well made, no crash dummy acts exactly like a human volunteer.
"That's why these German tests were particularly valuable to scientists studying whiplash."
Following the crash simulations, human volunteers are shown driving cars on roads and deliberately crashing them.
One man is shown slowly driving onto a main road, deliberately colliding with another driver speeding down a road.
Another driver is shown speeding straight behind a stationary vehicle, crashing into it.
In all the instances shown on the program, none of the drivers appear to be harmed and one driver even appears to laugh after a crash.
These types of tests have also been done using human cadavers.
In 2013, cash-strapped Spanish researchers admitted using human bodies as crash test dummies.
The scientists said not only are they cheaper than finding £120,000 ($228k) for a crash test dummy - they also yield better results.
The researchers at the Technology Park in Alcaniz in northern Spain admitted using cadavers in car-crash simulations and added they were one of six places in the world where human body crash test simulations were carried out.
In most cases they said bodies were made available for car safety tests after they had been finished with by medical universities.
However, the history of using human remains in crash testing spans at least half a century.
Before the 1950s, car makers assumed no-one could survive a serious crash.
But when Detroit's Wayne State University decided to test how much a body could tolerate in a smash, researchers raided the medical school to find suitable subjects.
In one early study, embalmed corpses were flung down an elevator shaft.
In 2008, Swedish newspaper Expressen reported that auto manufacturer Saab had used donated corpses in their crash tests.
Rusty Haight was a human crash test dummy who took part in over 700 controlled collisions and is now director of the collision safety institute (CSI) in Texas.
Originally a policeman Haights was teaching accident investigation and told New Scientist he needed some 'hands on experience.'
Haights said his fastest collision speed was 43kmh and he regularly experienced forces of up to 10G.
"That's 10 times the force of gravity – and that lasts for just over a 10th of a second," said Haights.
"So, say I weigh 91kg, for a brief moment in time it feels as if I weigh 910kg.
"That's why you cannot really brace against a crash," he said.
Some car manufacturers now conduct crash tests using dummies with sensors.
General Motors' Anthropomorphic Test Devices (ATD's) allow for crash data collection via sensors capable of generating status reports 10,000 times per second.
According to Popular Science, these dummies carry up to 192 sensors, allowing engineers to predict the risk of injury more accurately than ever.
These dummies have been improved to collect data more rapidly and include RibEye, a chest cavity containing sensors which allows engineers to better understand how the rib cage compresses during a crash.
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