Monday, October 5, 2020

IIHS Engineer's Lego Crash Test Recreation


"I've wanted to be a car crash test engineer since I was 10 years old when I saw the first IIHS crash tests on TV," says IIHS Senior Research Engineer Becky Mueller. "I even used to build Lego cars and crash them into a Lego wall." Stuck at home during the pandemic, she returned to her old hobby in the evenings. Two months, more than 1,600 Lego pieces and 1,500 photographs later, Becky has shared her first Lego crash test video.

Becky has recreated many of IIHS' testing procedures -- including important steps like dummy calibration, crash test photography and post-crash analysis. She also has added details that accurately represent the Vehicle Research Center and equipment used by IIHS staff.