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The First Crash Test Dummy Was a Human
Since the first-ever death from a car accident in 1896 that resulted in the death of a 44 old pedestrian named Bridget Driscoll, many car manufacturers began to realize that cars can be fatal to the lives of many. A heavy vehicle that moves faster than a horse was bound to cause accidents. During the early 20th century, many car manufacturers began testing safety features in their cars. In doing so, companies had to know the effects of the crash on the passengers.
As more cars were on the streets and more accidents occurred, it dawned on car companies that they needed to test the crash themselves. The first test subject was a corpse, or a cadaver to be specific. During the 1930s, Car companies would test car crashes with a cadaver in the car to measure impact and come up with the best safety features. However, it was incredibly difficult to secure an adequate amount of cadavers for numerous amount of tests that these companies were running.
After the realization that finding corpses for numerous amount of tests is not going to be realistic, companies started using animals for tests…
