Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 25, 1993 TAG: 9311250271
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D4 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: AMANDA KELL ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short
Between 30 and 40 bodies a year are used in testing at UVa and Heidelberg University in Germany, said George Parker, associate administrator for research at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
"We need that type of data to find out how people are injured in crashes, to know what areas of the body are injured under what conditions," Parker said.
He said the data are used to calibrate measuring devices on the crash dummies used to test car safety. "If you didn't do this testing, you wouldn't know what limits to put on dummies for crash tests," he said.
"The shorter-term goal is to figure out how dummies can be improved and made more reliable," UVa spokeswoman Louise Dudley said in a telephone interview. "Dummies don't have internal organs or bones, so you can't tell what it takes to break an ankle bone."
Dudley said the university's Automobile Safety Laboratory gets the bodies from the state medical examiner. All of them have been donated for scientific purposes, but lab director Walter D. Pilkey contacts relatives of the deceased for specific permission for auto crash testing, she said.
The laboratory has used about 20 bodies since beginning tests with cadavers in 1989. The research has focused on leg injuries, Dudley said.
She said cadaver tests are performed only when the information cannot be obtained from any other source.
by CNB