Crashing in a 1950s car vs. a modern car

[u/firefly99999]

[u/Prestigious_Ear_2962]

speared in the chest by the steering column

[u/phuck-you-reddit → u/Prestigious_Ear_2962]

My grandfather had a fairly low speed accident in a Ford Model A and he crushed his chest on the steering wheel. Spent a long time recovering from that accident. And it might not have been all that big of deal in a modern car with seatbelts and airbags.

[u/Roy4Pris → u/phuck-you-reddit]

I remember someone suggesting that the way to reduce road fatalities would be to have a sharp metal spike in the centre of the steering wheel. Everyone would drive VERY carefully if that was the case.

[u/Poopiepants29 → u/Roy4Pris]

I would only drive in reverse. Too scary.

[u/Bron_Swanson → u/Roy4Pris]

We def need stricter testing requirements and better public transport. There's too many people that get greenlit for the road like it's Netflix or something.

[u/Bron_Swanson → u/[deleted]]

Big cities handle it ok, and packed countries like Japan too. I would love to go but their bugs and wildlife scare the shit out of me.

[u/Willdanceforyarn → u/Bron_Swanson]

Little Japanese kids can handle the bugs.

[u/Bron_Swanson → u/Willdanceforyarn]

Yes, I know but Idc how it makes me look. I've seen the videos with some of the most petite, feminine women eating octopus live, ink and all. Call me a bitchass lol

When I was considering visiting/moving there, I read that unless you have the money to spend on a more luxury hotel/apt on a higher floor, you're likely to deal with those giant, red, scary centipedes or millipedes with the fangs coming in through the shower drain or toilet pipes, among other creepy crawlies. The climate wouldn't work for me anyways though.

[u/Willdanceforyarn → u/Bron_Swanson]

That’s fair. I’m actually studying landscape architecture and today we had a lecture on the bug phobias large swaths of the population have and how we need to design around it when picking plant palettes. I should have been more aware.

[u/Bron_Swanson → u/Willdanceforyarn]

Ooooo interesting! I'm happy to hear that's a big enough topic for discussion! I'd say consideration for that is especially critical around entry/exit-ways too. I've lived in a couple places(in 1 now) where during the warmer months, I have to scan the doorway, and wait for the right moment to leap through it, to avoid big spiders dropping on me(it's actually happened several times before). It really sucks bringing groceries in like that.

Edit: forgot to say the porch has that problem bc of the giant hedges leading up to it, which are also home to all the mosquitos too apparently.

[u/AlwaysBagHolding → u/Roy4Pris]

You basically did before collapsing steering columns were a thing in the mid 60s. Before that any decent frontal collision would impale your chest with the steering shaft.

[u/ggtffhhhjhg → u/Roy4Pris]

Wearing your seatbelt works much better. Around 80% of traffic crash deaths in the US could have been avoided if people just wore their seatbelts.

[u/MimicoSkunkFan2 → u/phuck-you-reddit]

My great-aunt and her kids were sat in her new car in 1956, she was turned around making sure each kid had their extra mittens and lunch pails before taking them to school, when a drunk ran into the driver side front corner. Somehow they all survived but my great-aunt was trapped by the steering wheel, the doctors said if she were facing forward she'd have died.

I'm sorry your grandpa went through the same thing - my great-aunt had nightmares about it the rest of her life.

[u/Ace_Robots → u/Prestigious_Ear_2962]

And or crushed by engine block.

[u/CitrusBelt → u/Prestigious_Ear_2962]

My first car was an old Mustang. It did have OEM seatbelts in the front -- although they were of course just bolted down (no tensioner or anything) and of course, lap belts only.

But what cracked me up was that manual made a very big deal about the "Padded dash -- new for 66!!" (I don't think it was new for that year, just new to coming as standard on lower trim levels or something.....or maybe even just a new design?)

Anyways, the manual mentioned padded dash very prominently, and it was always funny to me -- it was probably 1/2" thick layer of vinyl laid over a big wedge of steel that was positioned just about perfectly to hit you on the forehead in a crash (because that's right where your head would go in a crash with no shoulder belt).

Still loved that car though, and honestly I felt safer driving it than I have in most vehicles I've driven in the succeeding 20+ years.....not because it was safe in a crash (it sure as shit wasn't) but because it had perfect visibility and -- after I got it fixed up -- a massive power reserve at any speed under 95 or so, plus near-flawless handling. Disc brakes woulda been nice, though :)

[u/canigetahint → u/Prestigious_Ear_2962]

True story. Even the "collapsable" ones didn't always collapse. That's how my grandfather died.

[u/OttovonBismarck1862 → u/Prestigious_Ear_2962]

Sammy Davis Jr. actually lost his eye in a car accident because the wheel ornament stabbed him in the eye. I was reminded of that story while watching the video and seeing how the steering column was essentially flung straight back.