Editing Crash test dummy (section)

===Cadaver testing===
[[File:B11510P002.jpg|thumb|Cadaver used during a frontal impact test.]]
[[Detroit]]'s [[Wayne State University]] was the first to begin serious work on collecting data on the effects of high-speed collisions on the human body. In the late 1930s there was no reliable data on how the human body responds to the sudden, violent forces acting on it in an automobile accident. Furthermore, no effective tools existed to measure such responses.
[[Biomechanics]] was a field barely in its infancy. It was therefore necessary to employ two types of test subjects in order to develop initial data sets.

The first test subjects were human [[cadaver]]s. They were used to obtain fundamental information about the human body's ability to withstand the crushing and tearing forces typically experienced in a high-speed accident. To such an end, steel [[ball bearing]]s were dropped on [[human skull|skulls]], and bodies were dumped down unused [[elevator]] shafts onto steel plates. Cadavers fitted with crude [[accelerometer]]s were strapped into automobiles and subjected to head-on collisions and vehicle rollovers.

Albert King's 1995 ''Journal of Trauma'' article, "Humanitarian Benefits of Cadaver Research on Injury Prevention", clearly states the value in human lives saved as a result of cadaver research. King's calculations indicate that as a result of design changes implemented up to 1987, cadaver research since saved 8,500 lives annually.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=King |first1=Albert I. |last2=Viano |first2=David C. |last3=Mizeres |first3=Nicholas |last4=States |first4=John D. |title=Humanitarian Benefits of Cadaver Research on Injury Prevention |journal=The Journal of Trauma: Injury, Infection, and Critical Care |date=April 1995 |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=564–569 |doi=10.1097/00005373-199504000-00016 |pmid=7723096 }}</ref> He notes that for every cadaver used, each year 61 people survive due to wearing [[seat belt]]s, 147 live due to [[air bag]]s, and 68 survive windshield impact.

However, work with cadavers presented almost as many problems as it resolved. Not only were there the [[morals|moral]] and [[ethics|ethical]] issues related to working with the dead, but there were also research concerns. The majority of cadavers available were older adult males who had died non-violent deaths; they did not represent a [[demography|demographic]] cross-section of accident victims. Deceased accident victims could not be employed because any data that might be collected from such experimental subjects would be compromised by the cadaver's previous injuries. Since no two cadavers are the same, and since any specific part of a cadaver could only be used once, it was extremely difficult to achieve reliable comparison data. In addition, child cadavers were not only difficult to obtain, but both legal and [[public opinion]] made them effectively unusable. Moreover, as crash testing became more routine, suitable cadavers became increasingly scarce. As a result, [[biometric]] data were limited in extent and skewed toward the older males.

Very little attention has been paid to obesity and car crash studies, and it is hard to obtain an obese dummy for the experiment. Instead, human cadavers were used. Body weight is a vital factor when it comes to automobile accidents, and body mass is distributed differently in an obese person versus a non-obese person.<ref name="cushion" /> At the University of Michigan, obese cadavers were tested and compared to non-obese cadavers, and they found that the obese cadavers had more injuries in their lower extremities. The researchers also suggested that an obese person could be protected by their fat almost causing a "cushioning effect."<ref name="cushion">{{cite journal |last1=Kent |first1=Richard W. |last2=Forman |first2=Jason L. |last3=Bostrom |first3=Ola |title=Is There Really a 'Cushion Effect'?: A Biomechanical Investigation of Crash Injury Mechanisms in the Obese |journal=Obesity |date=April 2010 |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=749–753 |doi=10.1038/oby.2009.315 |pmid=19798067 |s2cid=20464616 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The use of NDTs or Neutral Density Targets were implemented inside cadavers' brains to focus on the impact and separation of the brain and skull. NDTs provided detailed observations and allowed researchers to look at a specific area of the brain after the crash stimulation. It also helped to establish and develop the Finite Element model, initially developed to measure neck injuries for three-year-olds. A real child's neck was interpreted and incorporated into the FE model. FE models of the human head have become increasingly more important to the study of head injury.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Warren N.|first=Hardy|date=2007|title=A Study of the Response of the Human Cadaver Head to Impact|pmc=2474809|journal=Stapp Car Crash|series=SAE Technical Paper Series |pmid=18278591|ref=NCBI|volume=51|pages=17–80|doi=10.4271/2007-22-0002 }}</ref>