Claire L. Straith

Claire L. Straith (1891–1958) was an American plastic surgeon.

Straith was a pioneer of Automobile safety. He described the cranial and facial injuries created by the dashboards and windshields in case of a car crash and advocated the use of seat belts [1] and padded dashboards [2]

According to Joel W. Eastman, author of Styling Vs. Safety: The American Automobile Industry and the Development of Automotive Safety 1900-1966,

Claire Straith was the first hero of the auto safety movement. He was the first to recognize that it was automobiles that injured people. An accident was just the event, but it was the collision between the passengers and the inside of the car that caused the injuries.[3]

Straith gained the attention of Walter P. Chrysler, and the knobs and handles of the 1937 Dodge were designed for safety. Some of Straith's ideas were to be incorporated into the 1948 Tucker Sedan.[4]

Notes and references
  1. The Seat Belt, Swedish Research and Development for Global Automotive Safety, ISBN 91-630-9389-8 , page 13
  2. Straith Clinic :: Straith Clinic History
  3. NOVA | Transcripts | Escape: Car Crash | PBS
  4. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-27. Retrieved 2007-09-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)


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