They sat silent and motionless. As we came into the room not one of the men, women or children gathered showed any interest in us but remained still, their well-shod feet dangling listlessly.
But we as motorists owe a huge debt of gratitude to this lifeless, inert group. For these are the crash test dummies car manufacturers use to check out safety systems in our cars.
This was Ford's family which return from their day's work in the Essex research and engineering laboratory bruised and battered on our behalf.
Dressed in light cotton clothes and wearing very expensive shoes - a standard requirement - they are strapped into car seats on a special rig which is propelled backwards at speed into the equivalent of a brick wall. Reverse acceleration throws the body forward in the same way, and with the same velocity, as in a violent head-on collision.
The sound is deafening, the speed terrifying. Sensors attached to their bodies, including the neck, head, chest, pelvis and legs, give instant readouts highlighting areas of potential injury while a high-speed cine camera captures the split-second action on film.
Airbags, seatbelts, seats, luggage retention systems and steering wheels are checked out in this way before they are fitted into a new car - even before the car is built. The data found in the tests is then used to create a safer vehicle.
The Ford Focus alone was subjected to more than 100 different tests during its development.
It's not only the driver who is subjected to these brutal crashes. The whole dummy family are strapped in for a day's outing with a dramatic difference. The result is a test which shows up potentially hazardous areas for all passengers in an impact.
And like us, the crash test dummies come in different sizes and weights.
Most are based on the average sized person but there are others representing an above average man, and below average female. Babies and children are also based on average weights and trying to pick up a six-year-old dummy is no different to picking up a human child of the same age, except the dummy won't struggle. In fact, the dummies of all ages are so unwieldy they have to be moved around in wheelchairs.
The thickness of the rubber covering the head and limbs is measured to correspond to human limbs and skulls. But there is not an ounce of excess fat on the bodies and all the women are flat chested. This is because tissue is squashable and will bounce back after an impact - bones don't.
And the cotton clothing is not just to protect their modesty. It's a standard requirement to measure the sort of friction clothing might cause in an accident while the expensive shoes - about £100 (€150) a pair - check on foot injuries caused by damaged pedals.
Each dummy, complete with its instrumentation which has to be calibrated after every 10 tests, costs around $140,000. And it takes a whole day to set up the instrumentation before a test.
Separate tests are carried out on a £1 (about €1.5) million Interior Head Impact facility which is designed to uncover potential areas which might cause head injuries, such as sunvisors and even the seat belt anchor.
All this testing has resulted in safety systems we now take for granted. Stiffer vehicles have been developed to reduce intrusion into the cabin, improved restraint systems stop us being thrown around or out of the car, retracting pedal boxes protect our legs and we have wrap around airbags which safeguard our chest, head and ribs.
And these dummies are not alone in playing their part in promoting safer motoring. There is also another breed of dummies used solely in vehicle crash testing. A dummy's life is not a happy one but they give their all to bring us peace of mind behind the wheel.
DummyData
The average male dummy - a 50 per centile male - is 5ft 10 in tall and weighs 75 kilos.
At 6ft 2ins and weighing in at 100 kgs is the larger than average 95 per centile male.
Original average sizes were drawn up 20 years ago and based on men in the US Air Force.