[geeks] Mac definitions

[Shannon]

On 13-Jul-2011 21:29, Sandwich Maker wrote:

> it's an urban folklore that bigger, heaver cars are safer, and it's
> true to a point.   but counterintuitively, in this sort of crash
> you're also safer if you're speeding.

Only in certain circumstances.

If you have an unsafe large 70s car and and unsafe small 70s car (or 80s
probably), then yes the big one probably wins.

That's no longer true now.

Things have changed a lot since the 70s.

Back then most accidents, just as now, were relatively low speed and
close to home. They were also the most deadly overall, with a large
percentage of them resulting in severe injury and death. Even common
fender benders when I was growing up involved ambulances.

It was not uncommon for cars to survive even fatal accidents and remain
usable. My father once worked an accident on a 70s model Ford that had
been in multiple fatal accidents.

Now most of those common accidents are "walk away" affairs.

There are multiple reasons for this, it is not all vehicle construction.

Up through the 70s several things were typical:

- cars did not maintain the front seat area's structure
- cars did not absorb energy in a collision
- cars did not prevent engine intrusion
- steal was heavier but weaker
- there was no impact armor/bars in cars (or few had it)
- many people did not wear seat belts
- many seat belts were lap only which pivot the wearer forward into the
  dash or the rear seat
- vehicles did not have anti-lock brakes and other features to help
  maintain control in adverse situations

Now things look different:

- cars tend to preserve the front seat area structure
- cars absorb most of the energy in a collection
- cars prevent engine intrusion
- fuel tanks are safer
- people are far more likely to be wearing seat belts
- seat belts are better now and all require shoulder harness
- almost all cars now have air bags
- ...anti-lock breaks
- ...360 degree impact armor (steel bars in doors and other critical
  locations)
- some cars even have traction control

All of those things factor into how survivable a crash is, not just any one.

There are also a lot of negatives now:

- there are more distractions
- road design, especially parking lots, is horrible now
- people have greatly increased their use of things that should never be
  used while driving (cellphones, etc)
- there are more people on the road
- some safety features in cars have made people lazy

That last one is important, although the real cause is that there just
has never been good driver education in this country, and probably a lot
of others as well.