Victoria’s TAC develops Graham, the latest model for road safety

Victoria’s Transport Accident Commission has designed the ideal human body that can survive a car crash. The agency’s latest road safety campaign introduces Graham, a grotesque-looking sculpture that perfectly illustrates why no human, no matter how strong, would survive a transport accident.

TAC launched on Wednesday its latest road safety project, which highlights how a normal human body would be killed in road accidents. It has collaborated with Royal Melbourne Hospital trauma surgeon Christian Kenfield, Monash University Accident Research Centre crash investigator David Logan and Melbourne sculptor Patricia Piccinini to develop Graham.

Graham doesn’t look attractive, but he would be the only person alive in a car crash. He doesn’t also look like anyone today, and that’s because his purpose is to stress to people that no human body could withstand the trauma of a road collision

“Graham is an educational tool that will serve the community for years to come as a reminder of why we need to develop a safer road system that will protect us when things go wrong,” TAC chief executive officer Joe Calafiore said. He added that the science of human vulnerability strengthens Victoria’s new approach, the Toward Zero, to road trauma reduction.

TAC uses Google Tango to allow website visitors use augmented reality technology to look beneath Graham’s skin at MeetGraham.com.au. This explains how Graham is made as he is. For example, Graham’s brain, while the same as a normal human’s, is protected with a reinforced skull that can support the brain during transport accidents.

“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,” Piccinini said.

Watch: TAC Interactive Sculpture Graham: Brain – Meet Graham, TAC 2016

YouTube/TACVictoria

“People can survive running at a full pace into a wall when you’re talking about collisions involving vehicles, the speeds are faster, the forces are greater and the chances of survival are much slimmer,” Calafiore explained.

“Cars have evolved a lot faster than humans and Graham helps us understand why we need to improve every aspect of our roads system to protect ourselves from our own mistakes.”

The installation will be on show until Aug. 8 at the State Library of Victoria. It will then go on a roadshow in regional centres.

Watch: The only person to survive on our roads- Meet Graham, TAC 2016

YouTube/TACVictoria