Car Safety
During his work at Holloman Air Force Base, Stapp became interested in the implications of his work for car safety. At the time, cars were generally not fitted with seatbelts, but Stapp had shown that a properly restrained human could survive far greater impacts than an unrestrained one. Many traffic-accident deaths were therefore avoidable but for the lack of seatbelts. Stapp became a strong advocate and publicist for this cause, frequently steering interviews onto the subject, organizing conferences, and staging demonstrations (including the first known use of automobile crash test dummies). At one point, the military objected to funding work they believed was outside their purview, but they were persuaded when Stapp gave them statistics showing that more Air Force pilots were killed in traffic accidents than in plane crashes. The culmination of his efforts came in 1966 when Stapp witnessed Lyndon B. Johnson sign the law making manufacture of cars with seatbelts (lapbelts at that time) compulsory.
Read more about this topic: John Stapp
Famous quotes containing the words car and/or safety:
“One way to do it might be by making the scenery penetrate the automobile. A polished black sedan was a good subject, especially if parked at the intersection of a tree-bordered street and one of those heavyish spring skies whose bloated gray clouds and amoeba-shaped blotches of blue seem more physical than the reticent elms and effusive pavement. Now break the body of the car into separate curves and panels; then put it together in terms of reflections.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Love no man in good earnest, nor no further in sport
neither, than with safety of a pure blush thou mayst in
honor come off again.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)