Do you ever think about how safe your car is?

[Junkman]

I'd still buckle up. Because wimp.

[Talbot]

Many years ago (Like 25) I was driving a Talbot Horizon at a slightly* unlawful speed down the M3 Southbound, just north of Winchester. (2-lane section just there)  It was November, 9PM and the candles-in-jamjars that the Horizon had for headlamps were fairly useless.  You drove on the fact that the road ahead of you was dark, hence clear.

 

Except it wasn't.  Unbeknownst to me (But knownst to others) a Brown Mini had pulled from lane 1 into lane 2 without looking, and clipped a Maestro van.  The mini spun and ended up in lane 2 at a somewhat jaunty angle.  The driver left the vehicle there with no lights on at all, and at sufficient of an angle that the rear reflectors were useless.  I was in lane 2 overtaking a Volvo 740, and was looking in the rear view mirror to see if I had left enough gap before pulling back in, and something caught my attention ahead of me.  It was the afforementioned mini appearing in the dipped beam headlamps (IE about 30 feet away.)  No chance to do anything, so I hit it.  Fucking hard.  And was knocked unconcious. Reports are that my brake lamps came on just at the moment of impact.

 

Apparently I knocked the Mini in to next week, and came to a halt sideways on in lane 1, where the Volvo I had previously been overtaking did the best he could to stop, but still ended up twatting into the passenger side of the car, knocking me back into lane 2.  I woke up an unknown time later.  I remember trying to put the hazard lamps on, and couldn't work out why they wouldn't work.  I also couldn't work out why I couldn't release my seatbelt, so pulled all the slack out of the spool and slid out underneath it, opened the door and walked away.

 

The Horizon had no front left.. the car stopped about where the front suspension should have been.  The passenger door had also burst into the car and I have a teeny tiny scar on my left elbow from where the door hit it.  I was very lucky to not have a passenger.  The Mini had it's fuel tank pushed through the windscreen (!!!!) and the Volvo just had the classic inverted V bonnet and still moved under it's own power.

 

We were recovered to the Shell fuel station at Winnall (just off the A34/M3 roundabout there).  4 months later, (complete co-incidence) I went for a job interview at the same fuel station and ended up working there for about 2 years on-and-off during college.  One night a Police officer came in and looked at me very strangely.  I realised I recognised him, and he recognised me.  We worked out that he was the officer-in-charge of the incident.  His comment... "I've never seen a car that badly damaged with a driver able to walk away".

 

I had a seatbelt-shaped bruise across my torso for about a month thereafter, and damaged my left hip.  I still limp when the weather is damp/miserable.

 

That Horizon was an astonishingly strong car.  The main passenger cell was completely straight.  When we went to the recovery compound to recover personal effects from the car, the three remaining doors and boot all opened and closed perfectly in line.  Same can't be said about the passenger door, but then it did have to deal with an entire Volvo 740 at about 40mph...

 

So yes.  I do think about secondary safety in a car.   Doesn't stop be from driving utter chod though.

 

Edit.  On top of all that, it wasn't even my car, it was my mothers.  Oops!

[oldcars]

I drive a Rialto, so my answer is no.

[SRi05]

The Fiat Seicento crash test video is a horror show, I watched it last year shortly after picking up a little Sporting. On my phone but I'll post it later for the lols

[cpjitservices]

No, but I imagine the age of the Volvo and 0 Airbags (I believe) would make it quite unsafe for today's standards. 

[busmansholiday]

The only time I have seriously worried about my safety was a fair few years ago at work when our departments Transit wasn't available (we'd probably broken it). We had to go cap in hand to another department so ask to borrow theirs. We were very surprised when their manager cherrfully throwed us a set of keys and said you're welcome, let us know what you think of it, it's on loan from the local Vauxhall dealer, to see if we are interested in buying any.

 

We found out why he was laughing when we got to the compound and found a nice new shiney Bedford Rascal there. When you realise that if you are in any form of front end shunt with one of these and the minimum injury is going to be both of your legs get amputated, it focuses the mind rapidly.

 

No we didn't but any.

[LostnotFound]

I have found myself increasingly leaving a much larger space in front if I find myself the last car in a queue. I hold the brake lights on too. Have been a couple of times lately that I've been glad of that bit of space. Never nice when you hear the wheels lock up on the car behind...

 

This is exactly why bikes have no choice but to filter to the front. There is some 'very extrapolated data' showing bikers are 30% less likely to be rear ended in California where filtering is legal than other states where it isn't.

 

Cage wise, I'd rather my car was safer than not. However people seem to read too much into some of the crash tests, they really are towards the extreme end of impacts that you are likely to suffer. Things like G whizzs that fold up if sneezed at I can see the concern, but realistically anything turn of the century onward should deal with most stuff and anything older just means you are cool and have the ability to rationalise risk taking.

 

I'd rather A pillers were reduced reminding car drivers of their mortality and possibly even letting them see the motorcycle that was hidden behind them. In reality that'd make no difference of course as you could be driving a go kart but if you're looking at your phone you still won't see anyone.

[Anthony]

I know deep down that my cars (205's and a 306) are not going to stand up at all well in an accident, but it's not something that I consciously dwell on.

 

I've owned 205's for 15 years now and know plenty of people through clubs/forums that have had pretty sizeable accidents in them during that time, but touch wood, none of them have ever sustained major or lasting injuries let alone anything worse. Good friend of mine was nearly killed in a head-on in his 306 at Christmas though, which was somewhat sobering seeing pictures of what was left of the car and witnessing his long road to recovery (was in ICU for a few weeks and off work for months whilst he recovered) knowing that could just as easily have been me.

 

That said of course, even the bacofoil construction of a 205 is positively indestructible compared to the vulnerability of a motorcyclist in even a fairly low speed accident.

[Junkman]

I'd rather A pillers were reduced reminding car drivers of their mortality and possibly even letting them see the motorcycle that was hidden behind them.

 

The Clio Grand Tour I had as a hire car following the 405 incident in Bavaria managed to obscure 40 tonners with its a pillars!

But I didn't care, since I felt like being at Abraham's bosom and drove like every cunt does who thinks their car is safe.

 

Am I the only one who gets in newfangled tosh and the first thing is throwing it into a corner at daft speed just to celebrate the

electronic wizardry that kicks in trying to righten my madness?

 

The hit I received with the 405 was the most severe road accident I had since the CX disaster almost 30 years ago.

Everything else was minor enough to not even being reported to the insurance.

I do my best to avoid accidents happening in the first place and believe that I could also have avoided both of these major incidents,

had I had a bit more presence of mind to do so.

 

In case of the Pooshow, I had overtaken the car that eventually hit me. It was on a well built German spec two lane with only the 100 kph

national speed limit off Autobahns in place, so people drove 120, as always.

Shortly after I had overtaken the slower car, I had to stop behind an Audi that yielded for oncoming traffic, intending to turn left onto a little rural road.

There was no filter lane, it stood right on the main road. After I had stopped behind it, it crossed my mind to drive onto the grassy verge to the right,

since I didn't feel safe at all in my position, however, ultimately decided against it, don't know why.

 

Despite the driver of the car that hit me got full blame for the accident and what the Audi driver did is perfectly legal according to the highway code,

I think he is the actual accident perpetrator. I would have never done what he did. I would have carried on to the next village not even a km away,

swung around where it is safe, driven back and then turned right.

 

I did a lot of motorsport when I was a young lad and if there is one thing I learned, it's when you realise that you can't avoid an accident,

plow in as straight on as possible. This is how every car is safest by design. A lot of accidents are exacerbated because people try to take

evasive action to the bitter end. If you can't avoid hitting something, hit it straight on.

The same applies when you get into trouble in a bend. Don't try to hold the car on the road, look for the way out that has the least resistance

and go for it straight on. I had several cars with very minimal damage pulled out of a field by a tractor that otherwise would probably have rolled.

[Snipes]

When my first Manta got stolen and crashed I didn’t think it was safe to leave my new one in the same place so I parked it at my parents house instead.