1956 Cornell-Liberty Safety Car - AllCarIndex

The Cornell-Liberty car was a pioneering American safety vehicle developed by Cornell University in collaboration with the Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. Unveiled in 1956, it was the first of two experimental "safety cars" created under the direction of Frank J. Crandell, the project’s chief engineer. The vehicles were designed to explore and demonstrate advanced automotive safety features at a time when such considerations were not yet standard in the industry.

The original Cornell-Liberty car introduced numerous innovative safety measures, some of which paralleled those found in the contemporary Aurora Safety Car. These included enhanced restraint systems and structural modifications intended to minimize injuries during collisions.

A second version of the safety car, completed in the early 1960s, was built on a modified 1960 Chevrolet sedan chassis. It further expanded on the safety-first philosophy with a number of groundbreaking features. These included body-hugging "capsule seats" with integrated head restraints designed to reduce neck injuries in rear-end collisions, a combination of lap and shoulder seat belts, and a continuous rubber cushion encircling the car’s perimeter in the style of bumper cars to absorb impact and protect both passengers and pedestrians. Additionally, its exterior mirrors were uniquely hemispherical to help lessen injury risk to pedestrians upon contact.

Both versions of the Cornell-Liberty car are preserved in the collection of the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, recognized today as important milestones in the evolution of automotive safety engineering.