The Ottawa police and fire department looked on as Carleton and Algonquin College students performed a crash test, colliding a crash dummy on a bicycle with a moving vehicle beside Minto Centre on April 4.
They performed the crash twice. Both times, the dummy hit the car and was sent flying from its bicycle.
Hanspeter Frei, a Carleton mechanical and aerospace engineering professor, said the experiment, done by a team of fourth-year engineering students, is meant for the study of biomedical mechanics. In other words, the test will be used to study the effects of various crash scenarios on the cyclist’s body.
Frei said last year the experiment was for an “over-the-handlebars crash,” while this year they tested a full-on cycle and car collision.
Jessey Almeida, a fourth-year biomechanical engineering student, said the dummy is equipped with sensors in key parts of the body, such as the neck, chest, and legs. The sensors will allow the team to pull data and analyze the effects of the crash on the dummy.
Almeida said the data will be helpful to Ottawa police to use in crash prevention tactics.
From the marks left on the ground, “they can determine the speed of the car [and] the conditions of the crash,” she said.
“It’s a great way for them to be able to analyze the actual crashes that they go to,” she said. “For us, it’s a lot of fun to work on something that actually has a practical application.”
In both crashes, the dummy’s helmet flew off upon impact, but Almeida said the helmet still absorbed a lot of the initial impact, despite taking considerable damage.
“A helmet is replaceable. A head is not,” she said.
According to Andre Marchand, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student, the second crash was “quite a bit more dramatic than the first one. [The bicycle] T-boned the car . . . it shot right into the air, along with the dummy,” he explained. “He definitely died.”
“We were happy to have two runs, and two successful hits,” Marchand said.
Marchand’s part in the experiment was “scene simulation,” or making the crash happen. The bicycle was launched at 21 kilometres an hour, compared to over 25 the year before. Professor Frei explained that 20-21 kilometres an hour would be a more realistic speed for the bicycle to travel at.
Ottawa police Sgt. Wally McIlquham said the experiment was useful in “showing the dynamics in a crash between a bicycle and a vehicle,” as well as the effects on the car and the cyclist.
“There may not be a lot [of crashes] per year, but every time there is one, it’s always catastrophic,” McIlquham said.
