Meet Graham, the ugly face of road trauma

Meet Graham, the ugly face of the Transport Accident Commission’s latest campaign to reduce the state’s road toll.

Combining evolutionary science, human anatomy and sculpture with the latest in digital technology, the interactive humanoid –  a collaboration between the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Monash University’s Accident Research Centre and Melbourne sculptor Patricia Piccinini – serves to highlight how susceptible the human body is to the forces involved in transport accidents.

TAC chief executive officer Joe Calafiore said humans had only evolved to be able to cope with impacts at speeds which people could reach on their own, whereas Graham had been designed with bodily features that might be present in humans if they had evolved to withstand the forces involved in crashes.

“People can survive running at full pace into a wall but when you’re talking about collisions involving vehicles, the speeds are faster, the forces are greater and the chances of survival are much slimmer,” he said.

“Cars have evolved a lot faster than humans and Graham helps us understand why we need to improve every aspect of our roads system to protect ourselves from our own mistakes.”

The installation will be on show at the State Library of Victoria until August 8, before going on a roadshow throughout regional Victoria.

To interact with Graham online using Google Tango (the latest in immersive augmented reality technology) to look beneath Graham’s skin and better understand how his unique features would work to cushion him from serious injury in a crash visit www.meetgraham.com.au

A school curriculum has also been developed to enhance the learning experience for students visiting Graham in person or online.

“Graham is an educational tool that will serve the community for years to come as a reminder of why we need to develop a safer road system that will protect us when things go wrong,” Mr Calafiore said.