I was 9 when the unfortunate Bel Air was hatched--boy, have things come a long way!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_xRZSwO9wM

Back then 50,000 Americans a year were killed in car wrecks, with a fraction of the driving we do now. I think it's about 35,000 now (can't remember the figure from yesterday's article)--and we could knock that figure down about 1/3rd if we'd get rid of the drunks...

 

That video was crazy. 50 years is a long time though. I'd guess they didn't do any kind of crash testing at all back then. Maybe two '59s would have fared better against each other, I mean, the Malibu was like a brick wall to the Bel Air.

 

I recall, in my childhood, watching a TV documentary which showed a driver flying forward without a seat belt, steel cookie-cutter horn ring penetrating the chest, the legs being snapped by the steel dashboard, decapitation by window glass during ejection from the vehicle. Ah, for the good old days of natural selection, before government interference with our personal liberties....

 

I find it interesting that a some people complain about the "plastics and cheap junk" being used in modern cars while calling older cars "tanks". My guess is that personal experiences of those who survived in car crashes in those "tanks" weren't the type of crashes that would benefited from crumple zones. Whereas the crashes in "tanks" that did need crumple zones probably didn't have survivors.

 

I met a fellow who said he recently bought his teen son his first car. He said he went to a junkyard and bought a '52 Buick, because it WAS such a tank. I hope his son never tests it.

Since then, we've made so many improvements. I'm assuming (hoping!) oldsbear's post was tongue-in-cheek. But here's what I come up with--feel free to add what I've missed. There's no attempt at an order, and not all cars have all features (yet).

Seat/shoulder belts
Crumple zones
Airbags (I remember when this one was so hotly contested by car types!)
DSC
ABS
Tempered side windows (and sun roofs)
Laminated windshields
Padded dash
Collapsible steering column
Better seat anchors
Reinforced doors
Stronger A and B pillars (plus C pillars in longer cars)
Automatic locking (all the time, or during a crash)
Automatic battery disconnect after a crash
Emergency flashing lights
Automatic roll bars for convertibles
Radial tires (and better treads)
Daylight running lights, for those who choose them

Did I miss anything? I also need to mention in-car driver training programs, such as the one BMW/Tire Rack sponsor

 

I would add:
Engines that submarine, instead of invading the passenger compartment.
Non-rupturing fuel tanks.
Child-lock rear doors.
No-trap trunk release.
Tire pressure monitoring.
Brake wear warning.

Of course, the auto industry fought many of the changes.... 'It will cost too much...' 'It can't be done....' 'We have rights...'

We owe a great debt to those who were maimed or killed, and had relatives or other champions who insisted that the mayhem should not be allowed to continue.

 

Good additions, all of them!

I would love to add one more--automatic lynching of DUI drivers. And worse for repeaters.

 

When I think back to the good old days I'm amazed anyone lived through them.

Cars have come a long way as far as safety goes & for that I am grateful. I do fear that all of those nanny's that drive for you while adding safety are also making drivers worse which lessens safety. Driving a car requires skill & concentration, nanny's dull those skills or in some cases remove them.

After all of this hysteria about runaway Toyotas is said & done I fear the government will implement even more nanny's in our cars.

 

Spoken like a man who has "crash" in his screen name!

 

Sorry to disappoint you for not crashing here.

What I do hope the goverment will do is mandate improved driver training. What we have here in this country is a sad joke. Those nanny's will help an unskilled driver, but having skill is so much better. Just my .02.

 

That's why I support the BMW/Tire Rack program. I've taken it, and it's very good--skid pad and all (we never could get the MINI to spin, though!). Here in Houston they also have a "Teen Street Survival" course, which is pretty similar. There are also autocrosses throughout the year (except July and August), which are held at the Houston Police Academy driver training course.

 

OMG that video was crazy. I'd hate to see what a new Mini and a Classic would do to each other....

 

Don't forget to keep in mind that the 59 bel air probably weighs alot more

 

yeah and nothing quite like pulling plastic bits from a Bel air steering wheel from the front teeth of the driver......

I remember reading about a few auto crashes in the 70's where the cars had been unknowingly equipped with front impact airbags. Apparently they were test vehicles for GM. In two such reports including one at a toll booth, drivers walked away from the accidents when they should have been DOA. The unknown Air bag devices saved their lives....talk about luck of the draw.

 

Not necessary. No teeth. Probably no head, either.

 

As an airbag survivor, I'll never own a car without them again. (unless its another classis car I dont drive often like my Cutlass).

I would have been surely killed or seriously injured when I was ran off the road in a single cab S10. The airbag saved my head from hitting anything, the engine dropped out the bottom when it hit the tree. The front end folded like an accordian.

My only damage was a bruised knee, broken rib (guess the transmission didnt break away as the shifter got me) some cuts and bruises. I hit a tree doing 40mph in the rain trying to get home during a hurricane in NC.

 

Are pickups exempt from a lot of the safety regs?

A couple of years ago Hubby and I, as well as another couple in their MINI, came across a head on collision of two pickups. Both of our cars were able to pick our way through the debris field (it had just happened). A nightmare sight; I wound up holding the head of one driver for about 45 minutes while the overworked paramedics worked on the other 2 survivors--this was about 20 minutes from anywhere--as it turned out, neither driver made it to the helicopters, but the single passenger did. It was fortunate that we were able to stop in front of the wreck--there was a ferry ride behind us, and the road was closed for 5 hours.

At any rate, there was no evidence of safety equipment--no airbags in either truck. Apparently there had been a last second effect to swerve to the right as the impact was quartering. Both drivers were pinned, which might have happened anyway, but the engines didn't "submarine," as oldsbear mentioned. No crush zones. They pretty much just hit and that was it. Hard to say what would have happened with more safety equipment, but they were evenly matched in weight.

 

How old were those trucks?

 

50 years ago a "padded dash" was a major safety feature.

 

Don't know. I don't "do" trucks, but they were late model. I would guess both of them were 4 or 5 years old at most. Maybe '05 or so. Both in good condition. Sadly, we had seen one pass us at high speed right after we got off the ferry, and recognized it immediately. The only witness said it caused the accident.

 

What a waste of a great old car!

 

Not really. It is worth showing the public how far we have advanced. If nothing else, it might dissuade someone like my acquaintance from buying one for his kid in the mistaken belief that s/he would be protected by shear metal thickness. Kids, especially boys, are "indestructible" and sometimes this sort of thing might have an impact, too (pun intended).

What IS a waste is when they smoosh Porsches and such; here again, though, we learn an awful lot about how to protect the occupants.

I just thought about another thing that should have been on my list--the increased ability to avoid the wreck in the first place by better suspensions and steering, in addition to the ABS and DSC-type systems already mentioned.

 

Even later--our '64 Porsche has a bare metal dash, and it has all of the options offered at the time (except air conditioning), including seat belts.

 

A '64 Porsche?! This I must see pictures of.

I don't mean to be off topic, so maybe a new thread in off-topic autos for your Porsche is in order.

 

Here ya' go--a rare '64 356 SC Sunroof coupe (about 3500 built as far as we've been able to determine):