Wow, great...could have been much worse. Thank goodness for modern enginering.

Trippath, please relay my best to your son. To have your son involved in an auto accident is not easy. I am relieved to know he is not as seriously injured as he could have been.

Several years ago, both my children, along with my Aunt and Uncle, were involved in a head on accident. Car from other direction came too fast around a sharp curve, into their lane. Hit them head on.
No broken bones, yet months of son going to Dr as had a neck injury. Daughter had a knee that sustained a heck of a bruise.
Aunt and Uncle had concussions and yet no broken bones.
We were all blessed as this was a terrible accident.

Yes, thank the engineers of modern cars for all the safety equipment installed in them now. Hugs.. kim

There are no words that can describe the feeling in your gut when you get a call like that, so I won't try. On Aug 8 1987 my oldest son was hit by a truck while standing at the curb at a stop light while riding his bicycle. He was knocked 30 ' crashing into an electrical box, and was not wearing a helmet. A bystander called us and told us he was being taken to emergency with head and leg injuries. He had a severe concussion, permanently lost some of his memory, and developed pipolar disorder because of it. The bike was totally destroyed as was most of his clothing.
Wear your helmet.

The whole science of crashworthiness is fairly new.

In the past, we put so much emphasis only on avoiding crashes, and of course, that will always be a worthy  pursuit - avoidance.

But finally both the law, and the engineers came to recognize that vehicles could be better designed and built to protect occupants in the inevitable accident.

This effort really began in WW II, when Republic Aircraft designed the P-47 Thunderbolt and with its cockpit capable of protecting the pilot from split second 40G forces during impacts.

The next step in protection is known in the aviation industry, and has been since WW II.  But it probably will never get into cars due to resistance from common folks.

That's the 5 point restraint system - a belt coming across each hip, meeting a belt coming down across each shoulder, and a crotch strap coming up from the seat, all meeting at a common buckle about where your belly button is.

The biggest deficit with what we have now in cars is called "submarining", where the driver slides forward, out of and under the seatbelt, and slams into the footwell and underside of the dash, as there is nothing to prevent this forward movement in an accident with forward energy.  A 5 point system prevents this with its crotch strap.

A 5 point system offers about as much protection over just a lap belt with single diagonal shoulder belt (what's in most cars now), as that lap belt and single harness did compared to nothing at all.

But for some reason, consumers rebel at the thought of the 5 point system.  If we could get it adopted, thousands of additional lives could be saved each year.

Kim -

You're right; I forgot about baby seats.

My daughter will be 31 in June, and we had a baby seat for her with a 5 point system 30 years ago.

Vers -

The ultimate "air bag", huh?

It was interesting about 5 years ago there was an article in the BMW owner's magazine about airbags.  Some BMW engineer was railing against them, as a poor excuse for not properly engineering proper crashworthiness and restraint systems into a car.

He pointed out how we all see NASCAR and Formula 1 cars go into the wall at speeds well over 100 mph every season and then watch the driver walk away.  He then posed the query as to how many of those race cars have airbags - of course, the answer is "None".

The fault in this guy's logic is simply economics - when cost is little if any issue, you can design a very crashworthy car and a very effective restaint system.  But you can't do it for a mass produced car that retails for $25,000.  And, of course, can you imagine the ordinary driver and passenger in a car wearing a full face race helmet?

I have no idea about the dynamics of Dale Ernhart's crash, and whether an airbag would have done him any good.

There are a couple of aviation seatbelt manufacturers now putting airbags into the shoulder harnesses in small airplanes, and the NTSB is about to mandate them for all new airplanes in a few years.

Serowbot wrote on 02/11/11 at 09:52:45:




Except for the wall crashes, some of those are head on.

Dont do the Detroit Lean. I sit up straight & keep the belt low.

If I could have a 5 point that I could push a button & lean over to touch something away from me, then sit back up & it hold me again, then Id be down with that.