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Episode: Killer Brace Position Original Air Date: June 22, 2005 Myths: Killer Brace Position, Cellphone vs. Drunk Driving
Myth #1: Killer Brace Positions?
The Myth:
Is the airline crash position designed to save you, or kill you? Kari informs Jamie and Adam that on her last flight, the person seated next to her revealed ("conspiracy theory" style) that the crash positions are designed to instantly break your neck, because it's cheaper for the airlines to pay off a single wrongful death suit than to pay for years of special care and rehabilitation.
The Experts:
Engineer Richard DeWeese of the FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, who provided the team with additional family members for Buster.
Kari's neighbor on the airplane (self-proclaimed expert), who provided the myth.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Buster: his nuclear family is expanded!
Jamie: "Dad's buff!"
Adam singing "opera."
Tory (to Jamie): "You are a sweet guy."
The Action/Results:
Is it safer to assume the crash position? Does it make a difference where you're sitting? Are first class seats safer than economy class? Are flight attendant seats as safe as either?
The show's researchers learn that, on average, it costs three to five million dollars to pay out for a wrongful death per occurrence, while it costs on average eight to ten million, and sometimes up to fifty million dollars, to a crippled, but surviving, crash victim.
The gang heads back to Interface Aviation for appropriate seats: First Class, Economy Class, and Flight Attendant. Once they have them, they can build their simulator.
Richard DeWeese explained to Kari that their crash test scenario includes a 35 fps velocity change at 14 G. Force peak is reached in only 80 milliseconds. Instruments determine what injuries the crash test passengers would have sustained from the simulated crash. This is what the team has to simulate, somehow, although they have no hydraulic ram with which to build their own simulator.
Tory builds a gantry, mounts the seats on it, and raises it on a crane to drop it for one second in order to achieve the velocity and sudden stop. The gantry is at a 30 degree angle, matching the FAA's specs.
Buster's neck is upgraded by Grant to test the results of stress to his neck, to determine how much stress it takes from the impact in both the crash position, and an upright posture.
Buster and his family are strapped into the seats in an upright position, lifted, and dropped. All the seats are destroyed, but the test is perfectly within the FAA guidelines for the test. Buster's chest meters indicate he withstood less than 50 G of impact, so his body survived the crash. He took 56.4 G to the head, not enough to injure. His neck also did not "break." However, one of the dummies had a broken femur. They would have died of smoke inhalation from not being able to get out of the seat or out of the aircraft.
Next, Buster is raised, in the crash position, and takes nearly 20 G force less when he's dropped than he did when unbraced. There was also less "injury" to his neck. The brace position in Economy is safer than unbraced.
The First Class seats are more comfortable; are they safer? More leg room resulted in leg broken in 2 places. His chest meters did not exceed 50 G, and his head meter was about 40 G. Headache, but not injury. Neck results were not even close to a serious injury. The leg break would cause a death from inhalation, but no other serious injuries occurred.
Backward facing flight attendant seat results were even safer on the neck. However, the head meter exceeded 80 G and the chest 50 G meter tripped as well. Some tests show that the body can take more G force while facing backward, but Richard DeWeese explained that facing backwards means all the debris at the back of the plane will then hit you in the face, instead of hitting the back of your seat. Seats stay facing forward, and flight attendant seats seem to be the safest bet yet.
Next: the team takes the seats themselves!
They're dropped from only 5 feet, but they still feel pain! Adam's seat is destroyed, Tory bruised his knee, and Kari's shins hit the seat in front of her. But the brace position, Adam feels, prevented them from having head injuries. They'd have been unable to hold their heads back, and the position put the energy of the impact into the seat in front of them, instead of their spines.
Conclusion: myth busted! First class is safer than Economy, and flight attendant seats are safest of all.
Myth #2: Cell Phone Vs. Drunk Driving
The Myth:
Is it just as dangerous to talk on a cellular phone while driving as it is to drive while intoxicated?
The Experts:
Mark Wolocatiuk, Chief Instructor for the Russel Racing School, grades the test subjects' performances on the training course.
The San Rafael Police Department administered breathalyzer tests, to ensure the BAC of Adam and Kari remained below .08, the legal limit for operating a motor vehicle in California.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Adam: "Yeah, it's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it. * burp *"
Kari: "Officer. Would you hand me a beer?"
The Action/Results:
The team heads to the Russel Racing School of the Infineon Raceway in Napa, CA to test which is safer: DWI (Driving While Intoxicated), or DWC (Driving While Connected). Kari and Adam both run a control-lap to get acquainted with the course. Next, they run the course again while Jamie distracts them over the cellular phone. Finally, they drink a few cold ones, take a police-administered breathalyzer test, and run the course while intoxicated.
The course includes accelerating to 30 MPH and stopping at the stop sign, parallel parking, the time trial, and the accident avoidance challenge. Adam and Kari both passed overall.
For the cell phone test, Jamie has Kari and Adam perform 3 tests: a sentence repeat-back, a mental problem, and a monologue where they must list 5 things, all while driving the course. Kari states that driving the course while using the cell phone was "insane." Neither Adam nor Kari does particularly well on the course, or on Jamie's distractions. They both failed the driving course while using the cell phone.
Next, Kari drives with a BAC of .075, and Adam with a BAC of .07.
Kari actually parallel parked better while intoxicated, but failed the other two portions of the test quite badly.
Adam failed about half the course while intoxicated.
Conclusion: "You can always put down the cell phone..." but you can't stop being drunk instantly, says Adam. However, since they failed the cell phone portion by a far greater margin than the intoxication portion, they unanimously declared this "myth" to be Confirmed. |
Episode Descriptions 
