You’ve probably seen him. He’s hard to forget. He has a massive, thick skull that looks more like a boulder than a head, no neck at all, and a chest that resembles a suit of organic armor with extra nipples acting as tiny airbags. His name is Graham. He isn't a real person, obviously, but he is perhaps the most visceral representation of human vulnerability ever created.
The project, commissioned by the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) in Victoria, Australia, back in 2016, was designed to answer a single, haunting question: What would we look like if we evolved specifically to withstand the brutal forces of a high-speed vehicle impact?
Standard human bodies are fragile. We evolved to run at maybe 15 miles per hour, not to hit a concrete divider at sixty. When a car stops instantly, your internal organs keep moving. They slam against your ribs. Your brain sloshes against the front of your skull. It’s messy. It's lethal. To fix this, a trauma surgeon, a crash investigation expert, and a world-renowned artist sat down to rethink our anatomy. The result was a human design to survive car crash scenarios that looks deeply unsettling because it highlights exactly how ill-equipped our current bodies are for modern transit.
Why Your Neck Is a Design Flaw
If you talk to Christian Kenfield, a trauma surgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital who worked on the project, he’ll tell you the neck is the first thing that has to go. In a typical collision, the head snaps forward and back. This is the classic whiplash, but at high speeds, it’s much worse. The force can actually sever the spinal cord or cause the skull to detach from the spine internally—an injury often called "internal decapitation."
Graham doesn't have a neck.
Instead, his ribs are extended upwards, all the way to his skull. This creates a brace-like structure. By sacrificing the ability to turn his head quickly, he gains a rigid support system that prevents the "pendulum effect" of the head during an impact. It's a trade-off. In our current state, we prioritize mobility so we can look for predators or check our blind spots. But in a world where the crash is the primary predator, mobility is a liability.
The physics of this are pretty straightforward but devastating. Kinetic energy equals half the mass times the velocity squared. When you double your speed, the energy doesn't double; it quadruples. Our thin cervical vertebrae simply weren't built to anchor a ten-pound head against those kinds of G-forces.
The Armor You Weren't Born With
David Logan, a senior research fellow at the Monash University Accident Research Centre, provided the data that shaped Graham’s torso. If you look at a standard human ribcage, it’s decent at protecting you from a fall or a punch. Against a steering wheel? Not so much.
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The human design to survive car crash forces requires a massive rethink of the chest. Graham’s ribs are significantly thicker than ours. But thickness isn't enough. In a crash, ribs often shatter, and those shards can puncture lungs or the heart. To solve this, Graham features a series of sack-like folds between each rib. These act like biological airbags. Upon impact, these sacks absorb the force and prevent the ribcage from collapsing inward.
Honestly, it looks gross. It looks like he has rows of extra breasts. But from a purely mechanical standpoint, it’s brilliant. It’s an "active" defense system built into the skin and bone. It’s the difference between a rigid box and a shipping crate filled with bubble wrap.
The Brain in a Padded Box
The brain is basically the consistency of soft tofu. It’s incredibly delicate. When your head hits the windshield, your brain doesn't just stop; it bounces. It hits the front of the skull, then the back. This causes tearing of the white matter and massive bruising.
Graham’s skull is enormous. It’s not because he’s smarter; it’s because he needs more "crumple zone."
- More Cerebrospinal Fluid: His skull is filled with significantly more fluid to act as a shock absorber.
- Built-in Helmet: The bone structure is much thicker, designed to take the brunt of an impact and dissipate energy before it reaches the brain tissue.
- Flat Face: His nose is recessed, and his ears are protected by the bulk of his skull. This prevents the delicate facial bones from shattering—bones that, in humans, are paper-thin and easily crushed.
Survival Beyond the Driver's Seat
We often focus on the person behind the wheel, but Graham was also designed to survive as a pedestrian. This is where his legs get weird.
Usually, when a car hits a person, the first point of contact is the lower leg. The tibia and fibula snap instantly. Even if you survive, you might never walk again. Graham's legs are designed with extra joints. Instead of just a knee and an ankle, he has a long, hoof-like lower leg with joints that allow him to spring out of the way or bend in directions that would normally result in a compound fracture.
His skin is also much thicker and tougher, particularly around the joints. In a slide across asphalt, human skin shreds like tissue paper. This is what bikers call "road rash," but it can be deep enough to expose bone. Graham’s "bio-engineered" skin is essentially leather armor, designed to resist abrasion and keep his internal structures contained.
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What This Means for Real-World Engineering
So, why spend the money to create a weird-looking silicone statue? Because Graham is a mirror.
He forces us to realize that we cannot evolve fast enough to keep up with our technology. Since we can't change our biology—we aren't going to start growing extra ribs or losing our necks anytime soon—we have to change the environment.
The human design to survive car crash reality is that we are the "weakest link" in the transport system. This realization led to the "Towards Zero" philosophy in road safety. If the human body has a set limit for how much force it can take, then the road system, the cars, and the speed limits must be designed so those limits are never exceeded.
For example, side-impact collisions are notoriously deadly because there’s very little car between the door and your body. Seeing Graham’s reinforced ribcage explains why side-curtain airbags are so vital. They are the external version of Graham’s biological "rib-sacks."
The Ethical Nuance of "Safe" Speed
There is a lot of debate about speed limits. Some argue that modern cars are "safe" enough to go faster. But Graham proves that biology has a hard cap.
A human being hit by a car at 20 mph has a 90% chance of survival. At 40 mph, that survival rate drops to about 50%. By the time you hit 60 mph, survival is a statistical anomaly. No matter how many airbags we put in a car, the internal organs still have to deal with the deceleration. You can't "airbag" the liver or the spleen.
Patricia Piccinini, the artist who sculpted Graham, didn't want him to look like a monster. She wanted him to look like someone you could relate to, someone who was just... adapted. When you look into his eyes, there’s a certain melancholy there. He is a reminder that to survive the world we’ve built, we’d have to lose much of what makes us human—our grace, our proportions, our mobility.
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Limitations of the Model
It’s worth noting that Graham represents a "worst-case" evolution. He isn't a perfect blueprint. For one, a body like Graham's would be incredibly heavy. His caloric needs would be massive. He wouldn't be able to run, jump, or likely even drive a standard car because his lack of a neck would make it impossible to see his surroundings.
He is a thought experiment.
He’s a way to visualize the "bio-mechanics of trauma." Engineers use the data from projects like this to calibrate crash test dummies. If we know that a human rib breaks at X amount of pressure, but Graham’s design could handle 5X, we can look for materials in car doors that mimic that 5X distribution of force.
Actionable Insights for Personal Safety
Since you aren't Graham, you have to use your brain to protect your body. Understanding the physics that Graham was built to withstand can actually change how you drive.
- Proper Headrest Alignment: Most people have their headrests too low. The middle of the headrest should be level with your ears. This mimics Graham’s "no-neck" support, catching the head early and preventing the neck from snapping back over the top of the seat.
- The 3-Second Rule: It’s not just a suggestion. It’s the time your brain needs to process a hazard and for your body to begin reacting. Given our lack of a "crumple zone" skull, avoiding the hit entirely is the only 100% effective strategy.
- Check Your Tires: Graham’s specialized legs are for impact, but your car’s "legs" are the tires. Hydroplaning at high speeds turns your car into a metal coffin that no amount of biological evolution could save you from.
- Seatbelt Positioning: Never tuck the shoulder belt under your arm. In a crash, this will crush your ribs and rupture your spleen. The belt is designed to sit over the strongest parts of your skeleton—your shoulder and your hip bones—mimicking Graham’s reinforced frame.
The human design to survive car crash scenarios is a fascinating, if slightly gruesome, look at the price of safety. We are soft, fragile creatures living in a high-velocity world. Graham shows us what it would take to be "tough," and in doing so, he reminds us why we need to drive like we’re as fragile as we actually are.
Next Steps for Road Safety Awareness
To better understand your own risk profile, check the ANCAP or IIHS safety ratings for your specific vehicle model. These ratings are based on the same trauma data used to create Graham. Additionally, consider taking a defensive driving course that focuses on "threshold braking"—a technique that manages the kinetic energy Graham was designed to absorb. By mastering your vehicle's limits, you compensate for your body's inherent biological limitations.