What price safety? Maybe we should ask Graham

Safety first. Unless, of course, it makes you look like Graham, because sometimes safety is overrated.

Even car safety.

First, a caveat: I'm not talking about safety belts (why wouldn't you wear them?) or air bags (one of the great advances of modern society). I don't mean vehicles that are determined to be particularly safe (I can't afford a Hummer and don't have a Subaru or Volvo, but I respect them). I look forward to the self-driving cars. Until then, I would be OK with wearing a helmet while driving if someone I respected said it was a difference-maker.

Safety is important. But if you're talking about having a body designed to survive car crashes? No thanks.

Sound crazy? You haven't met the aforementioned Graham.

Yes, Graham.

He's the interactive, life-sized sculpture version of a human designed by an Australian artist out of silicone and hair (like Pamela Anderson!) to represent how a human could best survive car crashes.

It begs this question: In an era when athletes take performance-enhancing drugs to excel at their sport, does it make sense for a serious commuter to undergo surgery to be able to survive any car crash?

You might want to look at Graham before you answer.

The Aussie artist, named Patricia Piccinini, consulted with trauma surgeons (my theory: One was Aussie singer Rick Springfield, who played Dr. Noah Drake in the 1980s on TV's "General Hospital") about what would help a human survive a car wreck.

The result? Graham. He looks like the missing link, even on his website in which he appears wearing only gym shorts: www.meetgraham.com.au.

Graham has an extra-thick rib cage with air sacs to help absorb the blow of a collision. He has a flattened face and larger skull. He has thicker skin (which might come in handy when people make fun of him). Graham's legs are multiple-jointed, going both ways. They end with hooves.

Graham might survive a car crash, but his social life would be a train wreck.

A CNN.com article about Graham quoted David Logan, a crash investigation expert at a research center in Melbourne, as saying, "It's really about understanding the physics behind road crashes, and (Piccinini) did a fantastic job of interpreting that and creating something that is really able to be digested by anyone from what is some quite complex physics."

Well, maybe.

Once I saw Graham, I couldn't stop thinking of what his life would be like. On the worst days of my life, I look like a male model next to Graham.

It's interesting to think about what could make us more able to survive auto accidents (which kill 30,000 Americans a year) and nearly any advance is a good one.

But Piccinini's creation – Fordenstein? – brings to mind wisdom shared by Richie Cunningham in a classic episode of "Happy Days," when he spurned his father's desire to move to a bomb shelter due to fear of nuclear war: "I'd rather live now than just survive later."

Pretty deep, right?

Graham's appearance, however, brought a more salient observation by my friend Teresa.

"He might survive a car crash," she said. "But he'd never survive middle school."

Brad Stanhope is a former Daily Republic editor. Reach him at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.