What a crash-proof human looks like

Meet Graham — the world's only "crash-proof" human.

"Graham" is a dummy developed to show how humans would have to evolve to become naturally resistant to motor vehicle crashes.

He is the work of Towards Zero, a collaboration among several government agencies in the Australian state of Victoria. As the name suggests, the project's goal is to eliminate deaths and serious injuries from auto accidents. The nearly $1 billion plan involves a variety of approaches, such as improving roads, installing flexible barriers and rumble strips, and investing in policing.

Graham has his own website, where viewers can check out the sculpture in 360 degrees and see piece-by-piece the kind of changes that would best suit the human body to withstand high-force impacts.

"The truth is that cars have evolved a lot faster than we have," said David Logan, a road safety engineer at Australia's Monash University, and one of Graham's creators. Logan worked with Royal Melbourne Hospital trauma surgeon Christian Kenfield, and artist Patricia Piccinini, who built the humanoid model.

The forces generated in a car crash can cause the brain to fly forward and smash into the front of the skull, as Kenfield noted in the video above. The brain can suffer serious trauma even without a single crash in the skull.

So Graham's skull is extra large and helmet-like with built in "crumple-zones," according to the project website. It is filled with more fluid than our own, along with more ligaments to brace the brain. His head is covered in pockets of fat to cushion the skull, and his face is flat, with recessed eyes and without any protruding ears or nose.

And he has no neck to separate the head from the shoulders — Piccinini found the human neck too vulnerable to include in her model in any form. His chest is "barrel-like" with extra strong ribs. The small pouches on the ribs act like airbags, absorbing the forces that would propel Graham forward in a crash.

He also has strong arms and "hoof-like" legs that would let him jump out of the way of a car when walking down the street. Even his skin is thicker and tougher than an ordinary person's.

In the United States, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this month estimated through statistical projection that about 35,000 people were killed in car crashes in 2015, and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show about 2.4 million people were injured.