Collapsible steering column?
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I do not remember the literature, but I came across some National Traffic Safety records about a decade ago and the most likely injury in a 70s Ford Pick-up was the driver's broken left leg.
Why?
A driver most likely either rests their left leg against the door (which from a side impact is directly hit) or extends it straight ahead against the floor and firewall (which is what a person would be doing either casually driving or in the case of a clutch holding it down while emergency braking)
Josh
Why?
A driver most likely either rests their left leg against the door (which from a side impact is directly hit) or extends it straight ahead against the floor and firewall (which is what a person would be doing either casually driving or in the case of a clutch holding it down while emergency braking)
Josh
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From: Western N.C.
OK...I'll just say this and be done with it. I promise.
Crumple zones and collapsible everything on newer cars and trucks nowadays would most likely serve to keep us from getting more severely injured. A great deal of the shock of an accident will be absorbed and dispersed by a newer vehicle's crumple zones, where in a car of equal vintage to our trucks, it would be like two brick walls colliding. So your Maxima weighs 4600 pounds...OK, but it has crumple zones. '69 Plymouths, '70 Furys, 70's Continentals, etc. weighed as much if not more, were just as common, and did not have any shock absorbing properties.
I repeat...I feel much safer driving my 73 now than I would be driving it in the 70s or even the 80s. I feel safer driving it than I do my Nissan (with airbags) because of many of the reasons that 77F2504by4 mentioned. I'm 6'1, and I feel much more comfortable in an old full size truck than a new small car, no matter how many airbags or crumple zones it has.
Crumple zones and collapsible everything on newer cars and trucks nowadays would most likely serve to keep us from getting more severely injured. A great deal of the shock of an accident will be absorbed and dispersed by a newer vehicle's crumple zones, where in a car of equal vintage to our trucks, it would be like two brick walls colliding. So your Maxima weighs 4600 pounds...OK, but it has crumple zones. '69 Plymouths, '70 Furys, 70's Continentals, etc. weighed as much if not more, were just as common, and did not have any shock absorbing properties.
I repeat...I feel much safer driving my 73 now than I would be driving it in the 70s or even the 80s. I feel safer driving it than I do my Nissan (with airbags) because of many of the reasons that 77F2504by4 mentioned. I'm 6'1, and I feel much more comfortable in an old full size truck than a new small car, no matter how many airbags or crumple zones it has.
Elder User
Joined: Jan 2009
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From: Western N.C.
I love your truck...
Wanna trade it for a 2001 Sentra? Hehehehehehe
My mom said she likes my truck, but she won't ride in it because it just has a lap belt and no airbags. She'd rather be in her Avalon. She also said her Avalon doesn't scare her when I drive it. My truck always scares her when I drive it.
Wanna trade it for a 2001 Sentra? Hehehehehehe
My mom said she likes my truck, but she won't ride in it because it just has a lap belt and no airbags. She'd rather be in her Avalon. She also said her Avalon doesn't scare her when I drive it. My truck always scares her when I drive it.
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From: Dracut, Massachusetts
I do not remember the literature, but I came across some National Traffic Safety records about a decade ago and the most likely injury in a 70s Ford Pick-up was the driver's broken left leg.
Why?
A driver most likely either rests their left leg against the door (which from a side impact is directly hit) or extends it straight ahead against the floor and firewall (which is what a person would be doing either casually driving or in the case of a clutch holding it down while emergency braking)
Josh
Why?
A driver most likely either rests their left leg against the door (which from a side impact is directly hit) or extends it straight ahead against the floor and firewall (which is what a person would be doing either casually driving or in the case of a clutch holding it down while emergency braking)
Josh
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,133
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From: Dracut, Massachusetts
OK...I'll just say this and be done with it. I promise.
Crumple zones and collapsible everything on newer cars and trucks nowadays would most likely serve to keep us from getting more severely injured. A great deal of the shock of an accident will be absorbed and dispersed by a newer vehicle's crumple zones, where in a car of equal vintage to our trucks, it would be like two brick walls colliding. So your Maxima weighs 4600 pounds...OK, but it has crumple zones. '69 Plymouths, '70 Furys, 70's Continentals, etc. weighed as much if not more, were just as common, and did not have any shock absorbing properties.
I repeat...I feel much safer driving my 73 now than I would be driving it in the 70s or even the 80s. I feel safer driving it than I do my Nissan (with airbags) because of many of the reasons that 77F2504by4 mentioned. I'm 6'1, and I feel much more comfortable in an old full size truck than a new small car, no matter how many airbags or crumple zones it has.
Crumple zones and collapsible everything on newer cars and trucks nowadays would most likely serve to keep us from getting more severely injured. A great deal of the shock of an accident will be absorbed and dispersed by a newer vehicle's crumple zones, where in a car of equal vintage to our trucks, it would be like two brick walls colliding. So your Maxima weighs 4600 pounds...OK, but it has crumple zones. '69 Plymouths, '70 Furys, 70's Continentals, etc. weighed as much if not more, were just as common, and did not have any shock absorbing properties.
I repeat...I feel much safer driving my 73 now than I would be driving it in the 70s or even the 80s. I feel safer driving it than I do my Nissan (with airbags) because of many of the reasons that 77F2504by4 mentioned. I'm 6'1, and I feel much more comfortable in an old full size truck than a new small car, no matter how many airbags or crumple zones it has.
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The ironic thing was a week after I came across that journal there was a head on collision between a Dentside and an 80s S-10 pick-up on the main road near my house. Although the Dentiside was severely damaged on the front, it was driveable to get out of the way of traffic.
The S-10's frame broke in half just under the cab and was completely toast, the driver died.
The dentside driver suffered... a broken left leg.
Josh
The S-10's frame broke in half just under the cab and was completely toast, the driver died.
The dentside driver suffered... a broken left leg.
Josh
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From: Dracut, Massachusetts
The ironic thing was a week after I came across that journal there was a head on collision between a Dentside and an 80s S-10 pick-up on the main road near my house. Although the Dentiside was severely damaged on the front, it was driveable to get out of the way of traffic.
The S-10's frame broke in half just under the cab and was completely toast, the driver died.
The dentside driver suffered... a broken left leg.
Josh
The S-10's frame broke in half just under the cab and was completely toast, the driver died.
The dentside driver suffered... a broken left leg.
Josh
most of the vehicles around here are small honda, toyota, (insert other small car brand here) and in a situation like that i feel and know i am very safe in my truck. if my truck hit a super duty, my truck would probably lose.
but one thing i have found, is that when i drive my truck, i am very causious and always paying attention to whats going on around me. usually i can avoid dangerous situations. i like to leave extra space between me and other cars/objects. that way if someone in front or near me stopps short, i have room to stop or swerve around the danger.
so far it has worked pretty good for me. but there is always the possibility that i could get in a bad wreck. and if i did, i feel that i would be safer in my truck.
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From: Western N.C.
That's part of the reason why vehicles like the Excursion, Hummer, and Suburban became all the rage not too far back. Cars are less substantial now than they used to be, and most folks know that the air bags and crumple zones in cars WON'T do a lot of good if they are hit by something bigger. So those people who could afford it got bigger vehicles.
It wasn't because they needed that type of vehicle...I'd say that only some 10% of SUVs ever see anything but paved roads...and hardly any are used to their full potential space-wise...but rather they wanted to be the bigger vehicle in an accident. "If somebody's gonna get crushed in their car and be removed by the jaws of life, it ain't gonna be me." The problem with this is that they got a feeling of invincibility, and now those people are typically the ones that make driving smaller vehicles dangerous for the rest of us.
For a while there (when the Excursion was introduced) I thought manufacturers would start advertising vehicles by weight, not features. Then, crash tests could be run like boxing or Greco-Roman wrestling tournaments...similar weight classes of cars from all manufacturers would be pitted against each other, and whichever vehicle is the winner in the most crashes in each weight class gets the highest rating possible for that class. Sub-compacts could have a maximum of a 1 rating; compacts a maximum of a 2; mid-size cars, light pickups and small SUVs a 3; full-size cars a 4; and full-size pickups and SUVs a 5. The rating system now seems to have been rendered irrelevant. I mean, if an Escalade and a Honda Civic both have a five-star rating, does that mean that a collision between the two would be a draw? HAH!!
I'm reminded of a Bill Cosby moment that I feel is quite appropriate...from 200 MPH...
"Safety belts are not there for my safety...the ambulance driver is just too lazy to go look for the body."
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That's Bill's standup routine tallking about taking a drive in one of Carrol Shelby's 427 Cobras! Funny stuff!
Josh
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From: Western N.C.
PIIIIPES.....PIIIIIIIPES....wait till them kids in the Chevys see these PIIIIIIIIIIPES!!
After that, Fords scared him...ever since then he's stuck with Ferraris.
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But, the fact is the newer and supposedly safer truck was rendered a scrap heap and the driver died (one of my best friends last week of our Junior year), while the older, unsafe truck was still driveable (I am the one that started the truck and pulled it to the side) and the driver only suffured a broken leg.
I know the original discussuion was about collapsable steering columns, but aren't the Factory steering wheels (the wheel, not the column) supposed to be collapsable?
I'll play bumper cars all day long against Civics and Kias, but I don't stand a chance against a full luxury sedans or modern trucks/SUVs
Josh
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From: tulsa,ok
I think Borgesen makes a telescopic steering shaft so that should give some before the steering wheel hits you and later hoods were made with cutouts so the hood would crease instead of coming into the windshield .
Hotshot
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From: Semper Fi tell I die!
you can keep your econo death trap, my bumper is at the right height to rip your head right off in one of them new safe cars.. id rather be in the old technology and alive.. besides i dont need 10 cup holders to make me feel safe.
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From: Dracut, Massachusetts
honestly, thats the wrong mentality to have. thats fine if you hit a small car, but what if you hit an excursion or a superduty with a dump bed? you will most likely lose. the curb weight on our old trucks is about 5000 lbs, my truck is exactly 5200lbs. a new superduty with a diesel engine adds AT LEAST 2000lbs to that. (most trucks nowadays are super/crew cabs) and the laws of physics say that if some one in a 5200lb object collides with someone in a 7200lb object with all kinds of modern safety features, the latter has a better chance of survival.
does all this mean that everytime you get in your old truck your taking your life in your hands and in a new truck you arent? not at all.
the point i'm trying to make is that when you drive anything, you have to drive according to how safe the vehicle is and what it is intended to be used for. so leave the 100+ mph runs to the ferraris. and dont have an attitude that your invincible otherwise you wont drive safe. thats the same mentality that those excursion/suburban owners have when they cut you off on the highway at 75 mph.