Lawrence Patrick

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Lawrence Patrick (1920 - April 30, 2006^[1]) may well be considered the one of the fathers of the crash test dummy. Between 1960 and 1975, while a biomechanics professor at Detroit's Wayne State University, Patrick served as a "I was a human crash-test dummy",^[2] allowing himself to be subject to rocket sled rides, crushing blows to the head and body, and other forms of physical abuse in an effort to develop a body of data on how the human body responded in a vehicle accident. One of his students, Harold Mertz, went on to develop Hybrid III, the current world-wide standard crash test dummy. Lawrence also subjected himself to a 50 pound pendulum to the breast plate to test the effects of a steering column on a human. Lawrence died of Parkinson's Disease on April 30, 2006 at the age of 85.^[3]