Page 45 - July 2015 Issue
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EIJ: There is another project called Praetorian that started October 2011; please tell us about that proj-
ect and if it is still active.
Stephen Richey: Praetorian is a project to develop a four to six-seat light aircraft that applies and advances the
current state of the art in occupant crash protection. The progress of the project has been slow because of the
other demands on the time of myself and the couple of colleagues (who are afiliated with outside entities).
EIJ: Crash Injury Research Database Creation is a project that started October 2007 that is a database
of aircraft crash injury information for use in improving crash survivability; please tell me this project
and if it is still active.
Stephen Richey: The database has been slowly growing since the start at Saginaw Valley State University. We
currently have data from about 2000 cases and it has yielded two research papers so far and there are two more
currently in peer review. Additionally, the cases in the research also play a major role in the textbook project.
EIJ: During your career, what were the three most rewarding experiences you ever had?
Stephen Richey: The most rewarding is simply getting to help prevent injuries in crashes. I have received a
couple of letters and e-mails from pilots who have read the articles I wrote for the aviation community about the
importance of restraints. The information in them helped convince these pilots to use restraints or, in one case,
to install shoulder harnesses which are not standard equipment in many older aircraft. In that case, the shoul-
der harnesses helped save the life of the pilot and his grandson who was a passenger. In my book, that sort of
incident makes all the work, stress and trouble worth it. The best cases are the ones that we don’t normally hear
about because no one was hurt or killed.
We at Elite Investigative Journal, Thank you! Stephen Richey for sharing your extensive
knowledge and expertise you have deinitely proved that you are a force to be reckoned
with in your ield as an Injury Biomechanics Researcher/Aviation Safety and Survivability
Researcher. We salute you!
45
ect and if it is still active.
Stephen Richey: Praetorian is a project to develop a four to six-seat light aircraft that applies and advances the
current state of the art in occupant crash protection. The progress of the project has been slow because of the
other demands on the time of myself and the couple of colleagues (who are afiliated with outside entities).
EIJ: Crash Injury Research Database Creation is a project that started October 2007 that is a database
of aircraft crash injury information for use in improving crash survivability; please tell me this project
and if it is still active.
Stephen Richey: The database has been slowly growing since the start at Saginaw Valley State University. We
currently have data from about 2000 cases and it has yielded two research papers so far and there are two more
currently in peer review. Additionally, the cases in the research also play a major role in the textbook project.
EIJ: During your career, what were the three most rewarding experiences you ever had?
Stephen Richey: The most rewarding is simply getting to help prevent injuries in crashes. I have received a
couple of letters and e-mails from pilots who have read the articles I wrote for the aviation community about the
importance of restraints. The information in them helped convince these pilots to use restraints or, in one case,
to install shoulder harnesses which are not standard equipment in many older aircraft. In that case, the shoul-
der harnesses helped save the life of the pilot and his grandson who was a passenger. In my book, that sort of
incident makes all the work, stress and trouble worth it. The best cases are the ones that we don’t normally hear
about because no one was hurt or killed.
We at Elite Investigative Journal, Thank you! Stephen Richey for sharing your extensive
knowledge and expertise you have deinitely proved that you are a force to be reckoned
with in your ield as an Injury Biomechanics Researcher/Aviation Safety and Survivability
Researcher. We salute you!
45
