Meet spooky Graham - ideal car crash survivor
Meet Graham, the only person designed to survive a car crash.
Don’t feel bad for saying he’s ugly – his thick skin is one of his warped features experts say would be essential to survive car crashes uninjured.
The interactive sculpture is part of a creative Victorian road safety campaign launched in Australia harnessing the expertise of a leading trauma surgeon, crash investigation expert and a Melbourne sculptor.
The Australian Transport Accident Commission says Graham shows how humans would need to evolve to withstand the forces involved in car crashes – and how susceptible to injury humans are.
‘‘People can survive running at full pace into a wall but when you’re talking about collisions involving vehicles, the speeds are faster, the forces are greater and the chances of survival are much slimmer,’’ TAC chief executive officer Joe Calafiore said.
Graham’s bizarre features include:
no neck, ruling out broken necks and whiplash
a flat, fatty face to protect the nose and ears
several airbags in between each rib and a massive chest capable of protecting the heart
thicker and tougher skin to shield and reduce abrasions and road rash.
Graham is not just safe inside the car.
To help him when a pedestrian, he has strong legs allowing him to jump out of the way of oncoming cars.
If that isn’t enough, his knee bends in all directions to save him breaking his leg when hit by a car.
‘‘The dangers at even low speeds, such as 25, 30, 35 kilometres an hour – are quite great,’’ said the trauma surgeon involved in the project, Christian Kenfield.
The sculpture, by Melbourne artist Patricia Piccinini, will be on show at the State Library of Victoria until August 8, when it heads on a roadshow.