Vintage Photo: Why New Cars Are So Much Safer Than Old Ones
– Posted on November 20, 2020
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My driver’s school in Dallas had “Terror Thursdays” where the old documentary films from the 1950s of rescue operations at the actual crash sites were screened. Nothing held back. Nothing censored or sugarcoated. What’s fascinating about the films was seeing how the rescuers were trying to extract people from the wrecked cars without jaws of life or extraction tools. Several scenes stuck to my mind after almost forty years, but I shan’t describe them here.
My classmates told me how fortunate I am deaf because they couldn’t forget the blood-curling screams, nerve-tingling moans, and heart-wrenching pleadings for a long time.
The first auto show I ever attended was the 1974 Harrisburg Auto Show in January. My friend and I were 11 years old at the time. We came upon a tent set up by the Pennsylvania State Police. They were showing one of those movies (and there was no effort to keep children out of the tent).
We watched about five minutes of the film and left. What still sticks in my mind is the footage of rescue workers removing a lady from a very early Chevrolet Corvette.
Not just cars, but roads as well. Modern signs and street lights have breakaway bases that are designed to yield on impact (unlike the pole above).
Yikes, that non-collapsible steering column . . . the total lack of a crumple zone is bad, but that serving as a rib crusher is worse. Collapsible steering columns were a huge advance in safety and didn’t compromise the enjoyment of driving in any way, shape, or form.
Looking at the angle of the steering column, and the damage to the steering wheel itself, both could very well have broken the driver’s neck.
I understand about image’s being stuck in your mind. In 1977, I got to see the crime scene photos of the Sharon Tate murders. I was 11. I’m now 54. I hold a moment of silence every August 9th.
Those non collapsible steering columns definitely appear to have been a problem. It’s kind of crazy seeing that, when you look at the steering column in a “modern” car the most bulky portion of it is basically just a stub to mount to the dashboard structure and hold the multifunction switch and gear selector if applicable, everything beyond is just thin bare shaft sections that goes to the steering rack. Those bulky old ones seem overengineered to be indestructible to modern eyes
Yes and on VW and Toyota Hiace vans the steering box is right behind the bumper right at first impact point.
Given the lack of pry marks, it’s probably a safe assumption to say that the drivers door flew open on impact.
Mostly they are if I have to crash and I really dont I’d rather it happen in my semi modern Citroen C5 than either of my Hillmans the Citroen has proper crumple zones lots of airbags pretension seat belts high strength one piece steel sides etc etc put together by robots who dont miss spot welds or leave bolts laying around because the lunch bell went,
The Hillmans well you know how they were assembled by peoples and judging from what I saw on my 59 when I pulled it apart at least one of them had a hangover and the other had less than 20/20 vision, the other one is better but done by the same company just later on when skills had hopefully improved and its the last model of its kind the other is an early build of its model.
Oooh that steering column, I do consider that occasionally when driving my VW.
I don’t think the driver walked away from that.
I have a dim memory of seeing a similar car accident as a small child in the 1950’s. There was a nightmarish quality to something as magical as a big, shiny, solid car transformed into something so deformed and deadly.
Traffic deaths were much more common then. Two accidents claimed the lives of young adult children of family friends in our small town in the late 50’s / early 60’s. The sign in the background is unintentionally cruel…’It’s fun to take the train to Chicago’.
It was similarly tragic in our town, though some years later. I remember at least five people killed in accidents near us: two friends each lost a parent, and three kids from my school died when their car hit a tree. Devastatingly sad then and now.
I can’t believe that my parents were so unaware as to let me get a used 1966 Pontiac Bonneville when I was 18. This was after they each owned, for years, a 1967 Pontiac (Executive wagon and GTO, respectively) that said right on the hub, ENERGY ABSORBING. At least they could have cared enough to insist I get a ’67.
It’s a ghastly photo and cars were engineered in a similar manner until the mid 1960s. The usual trajectory of the steering wheel was back and up, forcing the driver’s head back. With predictable results. Other injuries that were less lethal was the breaking of a large number of ribs resulting in what was termed a ” flail chest.” Thanks to improvements in auto safety it is rarely seen today. I spoke with some young first responders last year, and they’d never even heard of it. Treatment of that condition was covered in my annual first aid training refreshers for many years.
We never had those driver safety movies in Australia back in my day. We don’t have driver ed in schools either. But I saw enough crashes back in my childhood to recognise the dangers.
Going through wrecking yards back in the eighties I’d often see ‘pre-safety’ cars that had taken a frontal hit with the column pushed right back. The worst I remember was a Mark 1 Cortina where the wheel and column had buckled the roof. I dread to think what happened to the driver.
My oldest daily driver was a 1963 Falcon Futura. I lived in the farmlands of the Kansas Sandhills, miles of farmland, 50 miles west of Hutchinson. When the sun went down, the roads became black. The only lights were the Falcon’s brights, a two small bulbs buried in the metal dash.
I didn’t drive fast. It was an unsynchronized column shifter and the world’s lamest six cylinder engine. You don’t drive fast in an old car at night, in the middle of the Kansas Sandhills. Even when the roads were paved, the only lights on the road were the ones on your car. I used to turn the radio on, but have the volume off, just to have another light on the dash.
Signage was diffident. What was available was often not reflective. There were many times that I wished I hadn’t stayed out after sundown. I felt as though I was driving with a hand held flash light. There were few road lights.
One of the major reasons we have fewer road deaths is because of the roads we travel upon. Coupled with safer autos and emergency medical technologies that hadn’t existed before, we fly blindedly through many places, at deadly speeds, both day and night.
Where I live now – there are remnants of Rt. 66 circa 1920-1930. Narrow roads. Narrow bridges. Few signs. Many corners. Shallow road shoulders. Few road markers. When the sun went down back in those days – smart travelers got off the roads.
We’ve improved auto travel to a point where most of today’s drivers cannot fathom the common daily dangers they would have faced in a 1948 Chrysler on a dark road.
One photo with too many factors to list. A person could write a weekly article on automobile and roadway safety engineering without fear of over running out of material. Bottom line is in the US alone it has taken hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions in litigation. Much like the NFPA Codes and Standards 1896 origins. It stared by a small group of altruistic engineers accepting design deficiencies and trying to codify design improvements. In my 30 years of driving its reassuring to see how road safety engineering alone has evolved to save lives. On that note I’ll leave you to ponder the original I-90 floating bridge from Seattle to Mercer Island with donut hole interchange. Just looking at it gives me the creeps.
For me it’s the old Lake Shore Drive “S curve” in Chicago, the thought of taking that too quick in the winter with iced roads and plummeting into the freezing gross mouth of the Chicago river seems unpleasant
The scariest bridge I ever drove on was this one connecting Long Beach with Terminal Island, not replaced until 1968. At least the water here is relatively warm.
That bridge was featured in the car chase scene of the classic comedy movie “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World”.
The worst one I recall as a kid was gruesome. We had a curvy highway from our town out to the freeway, mid-late 60’s. Vietnam soldier home on leave, driving to fast, can’t make the curve, goes under a straight truck tearing the roof off the car and almost taking the rear axle off the truck. Both vehicles sat behind the gas station downtown for weeks for all to see.
I did see a few of those horrible fake crash films in drivers ed. One in particular always stuck with me, bulldozer loaded on a trailer slightly crooked and it still has the blade on it. Car from the opposite direction has roof removed by the blade.
We had one in Minnesota that was unusual, photo hung in the local office for getting over-weight, over-width and over-length permits. A heavy hauler with a large bulldozer loaded on the trailer. Bulldozer was not secured to trailer. The bulldozer in the photo was sitting on top of the cab, The dozer rolled forward until it ran into the engine.
At fourteen I came upon a eighteen wheeler that lost its load. A bulldozer was not properly secured and rolled off going around a sharp corner. It landed on an unsuspecting car and killed a seven year-old girl. I happened to arrive just as the father was holding her in shock. Turns out the bulldozer operator was high when he secured the load and missed a critical point of attachment. Responsibility of coarse ultimately falls on the semi truck driver but that’s a burden he will carry for life. Needless to say that intersection along with miles of road were simply paved over first generation dirt roads with limited engineering involved. About six years later that county road evolved into a four lane divided interstate with overpass.
The best safety features of modern cars are the better brakes, tires and more responsive steering/handling. I have never been in an accident in which seatbelts or airbags or any other similar such modern crash protection feature were a factor.
I’ve never been in an accident where algebra or fruit salad was a factor. What’s your point?
Hahahahah! Perfect response. Reminds me of the idiots who think it’s better to be “thrown clear” in a crash rather than being “trapped inside” by a seat belt.
In fairness, in this particular car I think I’d rather have been “thrown clear”.
It’s not an insignificant factor the improvements in automobile dynamics that have prevented loss of control in cars outside of the last resort safety features like seatbelts, airbags and crumple zones. The ideal accident isn’t one which you walk away from, it’s one which you drive away from.
I’ve never been in a car which was equipped with algebra or fruit salad. What’s *your* point? Mine is so obvious, a fruit salad could comprehend it.
I remember an article about a found 1930s Bugatti in Scotland. The photographer took a shot looking forward from the driver’s seat and commented on the lethal looking steering wheel position. That gave me pause for thought. (stock photo found for sample)
Driver’s-Ed Films: For a generation or more of teenage Ohioans, a rite of passage was viewing “Signal 30,” produced by its Highway Patrol. Plenty of dead bodies still trapped in their cars, fires, and so on. Regularly at my high school, someone would lose their lunch viewing this one:
I guess this is where they got that idea for a scene of the movie Moving Violations (the 1985 movie not the 1976 one) where the student drivers watch “Blood Flows Red on the Highway”.
My parents may have seen this video, which I plan to ask them, I remember back when I was in drivers Ed my mom would ask “did they show you the gross out crash video yet?” They never did show us but I can say I have now. Wow, we’re those brutal, the sounds of pain and screaming in one of the accidents were actually worse than some of the horrible footage to me.
Just for levity, it is humorous given the notoriety of the particular car here that one of most twisted and mangled crashes shown happened to be a then brand new 59 Chevy 4 door, and the owner literally walked away with just a couple scratches to tell the tale. Who’da thunk?
When I taked driver’s ed, I didn’t saw “Signal 30” but I saw “Freewayphobia” and “Motor Mania”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjZR7sWMSAo
Yeah, we saw a couple of those ones in Manitoba back in the day too.
I believe the dished steering wheel of the 50s and 60s was an early attempt to mitigate chest injuries from the hard steering hub. Ford showcased this with their “Lifeguard” package of the late 50s, which included padded dash and lap belts. I guess in low-speed crashes it might have helped…a little.
Also notice the front seat is ripped free from its anchors, which would have allowed any rear seat passengers to mash front seat passengers into pancakes against the dash. Stronger seat anchors were part of the late 60s safety regulations.
(Image from Old Car Brochures.com).
I like and own older vehicles, but the idea that older vehicles are safer because “they have more metal” or “I got in an accident with a Smart Car, and it barely scratched my bumper and totaled the Smart Car” is not supported by the facts. If you drive an older vehicle, in a crash, you will be injured more then if you where in a more modern car (built last 30 years). I’m fine with that risk, and drive defensively because of that.
While we did not view movies like “Red Asphalt” in driver’s ed. I did see them in the adult school class I was sentenced to for a traffic violation. It was anti-drug films we saw in Driver’s ed and Health in the tenth grade.
Thank you very much for the essay and comments. As for the 1959 Ohio educational film, “Signal 30,” I have downloaded this and look forward to living long enough to see my grandchildren reach driving age at which time I will be showing them this film.
Nah, don’t do that.
agreed. Outdated cars lacking most all of today’s [and tomorrow’s] safety features would hold no instructional value, just shock at the carnage.