I see it often, especially in the summer: a pair of feet sitting atop a dashboard. It's a very dangerous practice, for several reasons.
The most obvious reason is the airbag. All passenger airbags can inflict severe injuries on someone who has their feet on the dashboard. Airbags come out at high speeds - up to 200 mph - and most modern passenger airbags are designed to come out from the top of the dashboard, deploying initially upward then rearward toward the occupant. While this is a safer deployment method than deploying the bag directly rearward, it further amplifies the danger of putting your feet on top of the dashboard - which is likely to be directly on the airbag door, meaning that your legs and feet are going to take the full force of the inflating airbag, which can be over one ton of force. The inflating airbag could also throw your legs and feet into hard surfaces such as the windshield, roof, or even your upper body, which could further injure your legs and puts you at risk of life-threatening injuries to the head and chest.
"Advanced" airbags are no safer to put your feet near. Sensors will not reduce the force of an airbag just because your feet are near it. These sensors are designed to keep an airbag from inflating and/or reduce its force if there isn't enough weight on the seat.
Even in a minor crash, those with their feet on the dash may experience severe injury. Audra Tatum is one example - in 2015 she was involved in a relatively minor crash in a late model Ford Fusion. Her foot was thrown into her face, breaking her nose; her arm, femur, and ankle were also broken, and she was unable to walk for over a month. Everyone else in the crash walked away with superficial injury.
Crash tests have also shown that airbags can throw legs and feet around with tremendous force. Here are a few to look at:
1 - Minivan airbag knocks leg off of mannequin
2 - Crash test dummy's foot hits mouth in crash test
3 - Mythbusters experiment: leg of dummy flies out door
4 - Airbag throws 40 lb STEEL BEAM through windshield
In summation: get your feet off of the dashboard. Unless you want them to be mangled in a crash.
The most obvious reason is the airbag. All passenger airbags can inflict severe injuries on someone who has their feet on the dashboard. Airbags come out at high speeds - up to 200 mph - and most modern passenger airbags are designed to come out from the top of the dashboard, deploying initially upward then rearward toward the occupant. While this is a safer deployment method than deploying the bag directly rearward, it further amplifies the danger of putting your feet on top of the dashboard - which is likely to be directly on the airbag door, meaning that your legs and feet are going to take the full force of the inflating airbag, which can be over one ton of force. The inflating airbag could also throw your legs and feet into hard surfaces such as the windshield, roof, or even your upper body, which could further injure your legs and puts you at risk of life-threatening injuries to the head and chest.
"Advanced" airbags are no safer to put your feet near. Sensors will not reduce the force of an airbag just because your feet are near it. These sensors are designed to keep an airbag from inflating and/or reduce its force if there isn't enough weight on the seat.
Even in a minor crash, those with their feet on the dash may experience severe injury. Audra Tatum is one example - in 2015 she was involved in a relatively minor crash in a late model Ford Fusion. Her foot was thrown into her face, breaking her nose; her arm, femur, and ankle were also broken, and she was unable to walk for over a month. Everyone else in the crash walked away with superficial injury.
Crash tests have also shown that airbags can throw legs and feet around with tremendous force. Here are a few to look at:
1 - Minivan airbag knocks leg off of mannequin
2 - Crash test dummy's foot hits mouth in crash test
3 - Mythbusters experiment: leg of dummy flies out door
4 - Airbag throws 40 lb STEEL BEAM through windshield
In summation: get your feet off of the dashboard. Unless you want them to be mangled in a crash.
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