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Hemmings Motor News has been around since 1954. We're proud of our heritage, but we're also more than the Hemmings full of classifieds that your father subscribed to. Aside from new editorial content every month in Hemmings, we have three monthly magazines: Hemmings Muscle Machines, Hemmings Classic Car and Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car.

While our editors traverse the country to find the best content for those magazines, we find other oddities related to the old-car hobby that we really had no place for - until now. With this blog, we're giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what we see and what we do during the course of putting out some of the finest automotive magazines you'll ever read.

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When Safety Testing Wasn't Safe

Posted May 28, 2014 8:00 AM by dstrohl
Pathfinder Tags: auto safety seal belt

Today's vehicle crash tests are carefully orchestrated carnage, designed to scientifically measure the effects of impact forces on both vehicles and sensor-laden crash test dummies. The science of crash testing has made remarkable strides in recent years, but in its early days, crash testing, at least in Europe, wasn't particularly safe for the (presumably volunteer) human subjects involved.

This 1962 British Pathe video clip shows the rather unscientific crash testing of assorted cars in Hamburg, West Germany, all to demonstrate the enhanced safety that seat belts provide.

See the video on Hemmings Daily.

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Guru

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#1

Re: When Safety Testing Wasn't Safe

05/28/2014 5:52 PM

What's that wave lookin' thing comin' at us???

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#2

Re: When Safety Testing Wasn't Safe

05/31/2014 1:12 PM

There was a large turn over in the control group that didn't use the seatbelt!

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Guru
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#3

Re: When Safety Testing Wasn't Safe

05/31/2014 5:02 PM

Crash dummies were once called volunteers.

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#4
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Re: When Safety Testing Wasn't Safe

06/02/2014 11:56 AM

At least to their faces.

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#5
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Re: When Safety Testing Wasn't Safe

06/02/2014 1:42 PM

I see crash dummies every day driving on the roads, but they all look different and usually have a cell phone pressed against their face.

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#6
In reply to #5

Re: When Safety Testing Wasn't Safe

06/02/2014 2:03 PM

Hey, they put accelerometers in smart phones. We could be on to something.

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