An unusual crash test dummy has been created in Australia to help cope with an unusual driving hazard - suicidal kangaroos.

It is believed that about 20,000 motor accidents are caused every year by kangaroos leaping in front of cars and lorries. The accidents, which occur mainly in the outback, can cause serious injury to drivers.

However, in what is hoped will be a leap forward for safety, car maker Holden has designed what it calls Robo-Roo.

The plastic and metal marsupial is used to model the effects of a collision. The dummy has a leather skin and can be posed in a hopping or sitting position.

Kangaroos have been hit in mid-leap and this is simulated too, by crashing the car into a dummy which has been propped up on polystyrene bricks.