BREAKNECK CRASH TEST
Testing of children’s safety
seats in a simulated head-on
collision at 50 km/h in order
to judge the danger of injury
for a child of three.
Test vehicle is a skeletal
Volkswagen Golf running on
rails.

 

>> How do you photograph
a crash at 50 km/h from a
passenger’s perspective?
The forces occurring are way
too big for any photographer
or even a remote controlled
camera. My only chance was
a simulation. I used strobes,
a lamp, time exposure, nearly
invisible nylon thread and
a length of elastic rope to
stage the instant of the
impact and have the action
run backwards in slow motion.
I placed a red neon tube
beside the car to get that
dynamic red line.