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Larry Patrick
Some of the most important scientific developments depended on researchers prepared to experiment on themselves. These dedicated scientists performed experiments that endangered their lives to prove their theory, and in some cases, save thousands of lives.
“They were driven by the boundaries of knowledge, and that makes them heroes,” says host Sam Kiley in a new British television documentary feature, “Tested on Humans”, aired this spring in Great Britain. “Self-experimentation has killed a lot of scientists, and it has led a lot of others to the Nobel Prize,” Kiley continues.
Kiley and his film crew from Chameleon TV in Leeds traveled to the United States last December to interview and film several American scientists.
 One of them was Larry Patrick, former director of the Wayne State Biomechanics Research Center from 1965 to 1976. Patrick was one of the early pioneers in impact biomechanics whose research led to many automotive safety design improvements, including the air bag. He was a courageous researcher who volunteered himself for many different types of impact tests, including pendulum impacts to his chest as well as crash sled tests, to obtain living human data.
Other scientists featured in “Tested on Humans” include Barry Marshall, the Australian scientist, who together with J. Robbin Warren won the Nobel Prize in 2005 for their discovery that a bacterium causes gastritis and peptic ulcers. For years, people suffered because doctors blamed stress for the disorders. To prove their theory, Marshall swallowed a cocktail teaming with bacteria. “What makes self-experimenters different from other scientists is their willingness to give that little bit extra,” dryly comments Kiley.
For the segment on Patrick, Kiley’s crew spent several days in Detroit filming at the WSU Biomedical Engineering Department and interviewing Albert King, distinguished professor of Biomedical Engineering and a former colleague. The crew also traveled to North Carolina to interview Patrick and his wife, Bess, at their home in Laurel Park, where the two lived in retirement.
Patrick performed much of the early work in impact biomechanics with mechanical engineering colleague Herbert Lissner that was instrumental in the development of the Wayne State Tolerance Curve. The model is the basis for the current injury criterion for Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208 and other auto safety standards.
Early and succeeding Wayne State researchers, including Patrick, used cadavers to test seat belts, safety glass for windshields, collapsible steering columns, dashboards, air bags and many other automotive safety features today’s motorists take for granted. The data collected in these tests were critical in developing the crash sled dummies used by automotive safety researchers worldwide for testing safety devices.
On April 30, Patrick died of complications from Parkinson’s disease. He was 85.
To view the Sky One documentary segment on Larry Patrick produced by Chameleon TV click on the image:
 
To read Larry Patrick’s obituary, click here
To read Larry Patrick's obituary in The Detroit News, click here
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WSU auto safety pioneer highlighted in new British television feature
