Building a Safer Future at the Virginia Campus

Oct. 7, 2003

By Matt Lindsay

GW and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)/National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) National Crash Analysis Center hosted more than 250 guests from government, industry and academia on GW’s Virginia Campus Sept. 10, in celebration of the center’s 10th anniversary and the ceremonial groundbreaking of a new building for GW’s Transportation Research Institute (TRI). The new building will feature a full-scale indoor crash test facility, a first for a facility based at a university campus.

Representatives from FHWA, NHTSA — two federal groups who partner with and help fund the National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC) — and GW highlighted the positive contribution the NCAC has already made and will continue to make to automobile safety.

“NCAC research and technology makes automobile travel on our roads and highways — a daily activity for many Americans — a whole lot safer,” said GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg. “This venture demonstrates GW’s commitment to be an institution that does more than analyze a problem — we help solve problems.”

FHWA Deputy Administrator J. Richard Capka noted that while automobile accidents are the leading cause of death for all Americans age 2 to 33, research and technology have helped save additional lives. “The work we’re doing at the National Crash Analysis Center has led to better decisions about roadside hardware standards and improved highway safety,” said Capka.

Crumpled cars previously used in crash tests, 3-D computer simulations and child safety models introduced guests to some of the NCAC’s areas of research and advancements in auto safety developed at the center. The NCAC has helped to improve car safety belts, roadside hardware and computer simulation of crashes.
The main attraction inside the new TRI building will be the full-scale indoor crash test facility, which will be operated by the NCAC. The 80,000 square-foot building is slated to open in 2005.

“The new facility will allow us to run the high-quality tests with sophisticated instrumentation that is required for advanced safety research, but without enormous costs,” said Nabih E. Bedewi, director of the NCAC and professor of engineering and applied science. “Along with the help of our partners in government, industry and academia, this new facility will allow us to continue to conduct groundbreaking research to help solve the total safety problem.”

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