What kind of Person can Survive A Car Crash?

Graham is a product of a joint work of a sculptor, a trauma surgeon, and a 

road safety engineer, who designed him as a part of a new Australian road 

safety campaign.  The three worked together to create a projection of the 

kind of body that humans would need to have in order to withstand a car 

crash. This is what they have come up with.
 

Meet Graham. He might look different but I assure you that he’s human

1

The reason he looks the way he does is because his body has been 

modified to withstand a car crash

2

Graham was created as part of a new Australian road safety campaign

3

He was designed by sculptor Patricia Piccinini, a leading trauma surgeon, and a road safety engineer

4

He has multiple nipples to protect his ribs like a natural set of airbags

5

Graham’s brain is the same as yours, but his skull is bigger with more 

fluid and more ligaments to support the brain when a collision occurs

6

The brain is one of the most vulnerable parts of our body. It sits delicately 

surrounded by cerebrospinal fluid, which acts as an inbuilt safety mechanism 

to protect the brain from day-to-day knocks and jolts.

Graham has a rather flat face and a lot of fatty tissue to absorb the energy of 

an impact

7

Our faces are a delicate mix of bone, muscle and cartilage. Many people 

injured in car accidents receive fractures to their nose, damaging not only 

the bone but disrupting sinuses and the delicate parts behind the cheekbone. 

To combat this, Graham has a rather flat face. His nose is reduced and his 

ears are protected by the larger structure of his skull and neck

Graham has been designed with airbag-like ribs with sacks that do a similar 

job to that of an airbag

8

Car seat belts are designed to use the strength of the ribs to help us 

withstand the forces of a crash. That’s why the three-point seatbelt 

rests across your ribs and sternum and across your pelvis. It loads the 

centre of your chest, spreading the force over the ribcage until the ribs 

break when the force becomes too great.

Graham’s skull is a lot bigger, it’s almost helmet like and it’s got these i

nbuilt crumple zones that would absorb the energy on impact

9

The skull absorbs a lot of force on impact simply by fracturing. Essentially 

this stops the force from carrying through to the brain in much the same 

way a helmet works. Graham’s skull has been engineered to absorb more 

of the impact earlier, much like a helmet.

Graham’s knees have movement in all directions so they are less likely to 

be injured

10

When a pedestrian is hit by a car it’s usually when they’re stepping out 

from a curb. On impact, the immediate problem is that the knee is only 

built to bend in one direction, so it will almost always break first. Depending 

on the force of the impact, the tendons can also pull, twist and hyperextend 

well beyond their intended radius.

Graham’s neck is fortified with a brace-like structure that protects his head 

from injury when there is a sudden movement

11

There is not enough strength in the neck to stop the head from jolting f

orward in a crash. The forward motion causes a hyperflexion injury and 

the backwards motion a hyperextension injury. Simply put, the neck is 

placed under more pressure than its structure can manage. The added 

danger is the spinal cord running through the neck. If it is to bend and 

stretch too much it will break, causing serious injuries like paraplegia or 

quadriplegia.

Graham has thicker and tougher skin to shield and reduce abrasions and 

road rash

12

A pedestrian impact is mostly blunt force trauma. However, if our bodies 

are pitched to the road or if broken glass is involved, then cuts and 

abrasions can occur. Skin is vulnerable to the road, with bitumen 

potentially wearing through clothing. This is even more important for 

motorcyclists and cyclists, who only have minimal protection between 

themselves and the road.

Strong, hoof-like legs with added joints allow him to jump out of the 

way quickly in a “spring-loaded” fashion

13

For pedestrian crashes, there are now so many variables that affect injury 

severity – the size of the vehicle, height, speed and angle of impact. And 

there are many situations where legs are badly damaged. In fact, 

injuries to the legs, feet and ankles can cause long-term debilitation 

because we are so reliant on them for everyday movement. The shin 

itself is the least protected bone in the body, with only a thin layer of skin 

covering it.