Vägverket, the Swedish Road Administration, is reporting that General Motors used ten human cadavers for crash research. While it isn't clear which GM vehicle hosted the corpses on their one-way trip into a wall, a spokesman for Vägverket said it was most likely the Saab brand. The spokesman was also quick to point out that all of the cadavers were people "who had donated their own bodies." (Well, that is comforting to know!)
While cadavers were used in the earliest crash tests (first started in the late 1930s), most of us were under the assumption that fully-instrumented million-dollar synthetic crash test dummies, or computer simulations, had replaced human remains in current testing. Apparently, some folks at GM may have been thinking otherwise. As of today, neither General Motors or Saab have acknowledged any tests involving dead bodies, but our hunch says this issue hasn't been laid to rest. Thanks for the tip, Will!
UPDATE: Saab called to let us know that neither it nor General Motors use "postmortem human test subjects" for safety research, nor do they have the facilities to even do so. They do, however, provide funds to certain bio-mechanical research projects, often through universities, the results of which they use to make better crash test dummies.
[Source: The Local]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
MachWon @ May 8th 2008 4:07PM
So?
geo.stewart @ May 8th 2008 5:09PM
well, there are brain dead drivers on the road, why not behind the wheel of test crashes.
nothing better to use to see how the body is going to get cut and scraped and broken for real, not just based on 200ft lbs of force in this area from a dummy. of course they dont tense up like sober folks do.
jv2k @ May 8th 2008 7:10PM
Exactly what I was going to say.
Donated bodies used to test crash. Who cares?
There are museums full of preserved donated bodies on display, and med students get to dissect bodies. It's not like GM killed the people for their evil tests.
anonblondgurl69 @ May 12th 2008 10:56AM
so? thats terrific . I love it. Right to the point.
Will @ May 8th 2008 4:08PM
They'll never get that smell out
Randy @ May 8th 2008 4:15PM
I can see the ad for the car now!
"recent paint and faint interior discoloration"
MemphisNET @ May 8th 2008 4:20PM
I'm sure the comments were made in fun, but these cars are destroyed (completely) when the testing is finished. They're not even parted out.
I don't see a problem with this. If the deceased has donated their body to science, and everything is legal, then this should be a non-issue.
It is disturbing to say the least.... but I'm not surprised.
why not the LS2LS7? @ May 8th 2008 4:08PM
When I did some work for Ford in the mid-80s on their bumper test equipment I was not allowed to view any tests because they were using cadavers.
It never went away. The companies have done everything they can to minimize it because cadavers are expensive, but for some tests, you just have to try it on real humans and this is the closest you get.
Mulad @ May 8th 2008 4:09PM
Meh.
Lithous @ May 8th 2008 4:10PM
Out of curiosity what exception allows the neither/nor either/or to change to neither/or ?
Lithous @ May 8th 2008 4:22PM
I see, the original article is where you found the neither/or but I don't know think they are a good source to blindly copy/paste from since so many mistakes are present:
"meant aid" should be "meant to aid"
"an account of" should be "on account of"
Maybe it is an ESL thing.
pmiddle5 @ May 8th 2008 4:11PM
Its in good intentions and they are just corpses anyway; might as well put em to use.
Dude @ May 8th 2008 4:11PM
This is news?
Wait until this reporter finds out what happens at Med School.
dorpass @ May 8th 2008 4:12PM
As someone already mentioned... so?
MJK @ May 8th 2008 4:12PM
Now thats funny!
zjmuse @ May 8th 2008 4:12PM
nip/tuck reference!
bakka @ May 8th 2008 4:19PM
This has been done many times in the past. What is the big deal? You want safe cars or not? Gotta test them. Old news.
Randy @ May 8th 2008 4:19PM
Here's an idea! We could take convicted lifer-felons and say to them.... Listen... you can get out of here early but first you have to be a crash test dummy at top speed into a brick wall! If you survive you walk!... Or well, you get to leave! :)
pmiddle5 @ May 8th 2008 5:02PM
Only if we let them test Daewoos
why not the LS2LS7? @ May 8th 2008 5:03PM
Or we could release them into an underground disused city where they have to fight various American Gladiator-types, potentially culminating in a fight against former governor Jesse "The Body" Ventura. If they survive that, they not only get out, they get a free vacation in the tropics and a possible governorship of their own.