https://www.rd.com/culture/and-sudden-death-readers-digest/
This was among the first publications to bring to light the issue of car safety, and after a read it's no surprise that you were 13 times more likely to die in a car crash per mile driven in 1935 than in 2016.
Another conclusion drawn from this article is that surviving car crashes required far more luck then than they do now. Countless engineering hours go into ensuring that cars are not only as safe as possible, but crash outcomes are as consistent as possible - in other words, roughly the same thing will happen if crashes are roughly the same, e.g. a 40.2 mph crash won't be significantly different from a 39.9 mph crash at the same angle, etc.
Back in 1935, the only crash safety feature equipped to any car was safety glass, and many cars on the road weren't yet equipped with it - hence their windows shattered into sharp shards. Crumple zones, seat belts, and other rudimentary safety features were still decades away from implementation. Vehicle interiors of the time were made largely of metal, with many harsh, protruding surfaces.The state of '30s interiors was so bad that the article actually said that ejection from the car was the best outcome in a major crash. It says a lot about vehicle interiors of the time that it was better to take your chances with the road, street furniture, other cars, and myriad other dangers than the interior of your own car. The safety of even a Yugo GV - by no means a safe car for its time - would have been unfathomable in 1935.
How many of the crashes mentioned would have been survivable with today's cars and technology, or even with the rudimentary safety features that 1970s cars were equipped with? It's impossible to tell, but I would guess most of them. If the crash death rate per mile driven was the same in 2016 as it was in 1935, there wouldn't have been 37,461 deaths in 2016 - there would have been 479,056! Of course, changes in driver and road safety have made a huge part, but every year, over 400,000 people owe their lives to the myriad changes in driver, road, and car safety made in the past 80+ years.
I may be one - a 25 mph rear end collision could have been easily fatal in a 1935 car, but I was in a 1989 car in that 1996 crash. My mother is almost certainly alive because she was not in a 1930s vehicle when her big wreck happened. The black Honda Accord sedan that saved her life was made in 2008. In fact, nearly all of us probably know someone who would have faced probable death had they been in a 1930s car.
This was among the first publications to bring to light the issue of car safety, and after a read it's no surprise that you were 13 times more likely to die in a car crash per mile driven in 1935 than in 2016.
Another conclusion drawn from this article is that surviving car crashes required far more luck then than they do now. Countless engineering hours go into ensuring that cars are not only as safe as possible, but crash outcomes are as consistent as possible - in other words, roughly the same thing will happen if crashes are roughly the same, e.g. a 40.2 mph crash won't be significantly different from a 39.9 mph crash at the same angle, etc.
Back in 1935, the only crash safety feature equipped to any car was safety glass, and many cars on the road weren't yet equipped with it - hence their windows shattered into sharp shards. Crumple zones, seat belts, and other rudimentary safety features were still decades away from implementation. Vehicle interiors of the time were made largely of metal, with many harsh, protruding surfaces.The state of '30s interiors was so bad that the article actually said that ejection from the car was the best outcome in a major crash. It says a lot about vehicle interiors of the time that it was better to take your chances with the road, street furniture, other cars, and myriad other dangers than the interior of your own car. The safety of even a Yugo GV - by no means a safe car for its time - would have been unfathomable in 1935.
How many of the crashes mentioned would have been survivable with today's cars and technology, or even with the rudimentary safety features that 1970s cars were equipped with? It's impossible to tell, but I would guess most of them. If the crash death rate per mile driven was the same in 2016 as it was in 1935, there wouldn't have been 37,461 deaths in 2016 - there would have been 479,056! Of course, changes in driver and road safety have made a huge part, but every year, over 400,000 people owe their lives to the myriad changes in driver, road, and car safety made in the past 80+ years.
I may be one - a 25 mph rear end collision could have been easily fatal in a 1935 car, but I was in a 1989 car in that 1996 crash. My mother is almost certainly alive because she was not in a 1930s vehicle when her big wreck happened. The black Honda Accord sedan that saved her life was made in 2008. In fact, nearly all of us probably know someone who would have faced probable death had they been in a 1930s car.
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