Re: IML: Safety- Old cars vs New cars

[Christopher H <imperial67@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: Re: IML: Safety- Old cars vs New cars

OK, I was gonna stay out of this one but it’s physics lesson time!

Speed before impact has very little to do with it. After all, we brake casually from 70 mph without drama all the time, but yes, Anthony, speed AT impact has plenty to do with it.

The main thing to consider in any collision is the deceleration rate: the change in speed (speed before impact minus speed after, usually zero) divided by the time it takes to do it. There are three things that decelerate in a collision:

1. Your car’s body after it hits something
2. Your own body against whatever stops it (dashboard, windshield, seat belt, deflating air bag)
3. Your internal organs against your rib cage (and this is what causes most life-threatening injury)
   

Thinking about it, you’ll realize you cannot change items 1 and 3 right before an accident occurs. You’re going as fast as you’re going, and your innards are where they are. So there are systems in modern cars (crumple zones, air bags, seat-belt force limiters, to name the most prominent) that serve to add time to item 2, YOUR BODY’S deceleration (not your car’s) effectively reducing the overall deceleration rate and decreasing the risk and/or severity of injury.

Crumple zones allow the passenger cabin to make a softer stop than, say, the front bumper, and help to dissipate impact forces more evenly throughout the car body. And an air bag does its job by DEflating, thereby increasing the TIME it takes you to stop, which has the same result on the deceleration rate as reducing the speed at impact. It fully inflates (or is supposed to) BEFORE you contact it. Cars are also better designed to handle other impacts, like striking a pole, as well as rear, side and rollover collisions.

And what Mark McD said about active safety and accident avoidance is also a huge factor. After all, the most survivable collision is the one avoided.

So, without question, NO, your old car is not as safe as a new car. It might show less damage after it plows through a Kia, and it might cause more harm to the Kia (overtaxing its crumple zones and intruding on the Kia occupants’ survival space), but that just makes your old, rigid car more of a danger to the Kia, not really a better protector of you.

The 90 Imperial had a single air bag, not air bags, but at least it has early crumple zones (for Chrysler, the German side of the company invented them in 1951 and has evolved them for more than 50 years) and 3-point seat belts for the front-seat occupants. Modern cars have multiple, smarter bags and typically more advanced seats belts with 3-point harnesses for at least the front and rear outboard occupants (nearly all new cars provide one for the middle rear now, too).

And by the way, speed limits were higher back in the 50s and 60s!

Drive safely!

Chris in LA
67 Crown
78 NYB Salon



On 1/14/07 9:11 AM, anthony romano at mamrom@xxxxxxx wrote:

> How about the fact we are driving faster these days- especially here in New York -suburbs of course!  I think they pushed up the speed limit to 65 mph on route 95 and you know that ever one is going faster! Surely speed at impact has something to do with it!
> >  
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> >  
> > From: Cadmat <mailto:cadmat@xxxxxxxxx>  
> >  
> > To: mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  
> >  
> > Sent: Sunday, January 14, 2007 11:20  AM
> >  
> > Subject: Re: IML: Safety- Old cars vs New  cars
> >  
> >
> >  
> > How Old of old cars are we talking about here? When did Imperial start  incorporating crumple zones and the other occupant safety stuff? my 90 has  them and air bags.. my 81 seemed to have crumple zones in the body ( no  airbag) What about other years?
> >
> > DR CHALLENGER <drchallenger@xxxxxxxxxxx>  wrote:  
> > > problem  is that old cars dont absorbe the energy of an impact and the 
> > > passengers  get the impact.
> > >
> > >
> > > >From: "anthony romano"  
> > > >>
> > > >Yes Indeedy. The cars are made of  imitation metals/plastic today. However,
> > > >the industry today tried to  compensate this buy adding air bags all around
> > > >you -failure.
> > > >-  To add to your argument, driving a car today is safer because you  are
> > > >driving a car made of METAL not a generic brand of metal. The  cars of
> > > >yesterday were face with cars alike cars-ie Metal vs. metal  (flip a coin on
> > > >who wins in an accident). Today, however, you have an  advantage if you are
> > > >driving one of these older cars because it's  Metal vs. Plastic -Ie:
> > > >Advantage- YOU! As they saying goes "They  don't make cars they way they use
> > > >to"!  -Anthony
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
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