Model A CRASH??

[bluesman31]

Here's a ( ahem) " handy" comparison of older cars and speedsters in wrecks. you'll recognize a Model A in the last crash... but it was the poor chevy driver who ate it. Please folks, wear a seat belt, and head gear if you drive a speedster. I still see far too many old cars without seat belts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcHIWQduLjk

I really wonder about the seat belts. If you look at the racing video with the speedsters it is clear that seatbelts would not be a good idea because they have no roll bars and being thrown from the car is far better than having the car crush you.

The Model A has no collapsible steering column, padded dash or other safety features that were designed to work in harmony with seat belts. I am not convinced that in an open car like my roadsters that best idea for most crashes?

 

[painterrick]

The doors usually fly open .And a friend of mine got his Tudor hit in the side,flipped over and they exited via the cloth top and chicken wire.Moral to the story be careful driving .Seat belts strongly recomended.Bright tail lamps and turn signals,as young people today have no clue what hand signals are about .

 

[Special Coupe Frank]

I wouldn't plan on walking away from any Model A wreck more severe than a parking-lot bump.

Your chances might improve slightly in a closed car...

As wonderful as our old iron is in terms of its simplicity and durability, it offers very little in the way of passenger protection in a accident, especially in modern traffic with modern drivers (read: fast and distracted).

(As an example, the early '28 Phaeton wreck on page one: look at the steering wheel: it got folded towards the dash from the force of the driver lurching forward during impact. I wonder how much damage the steering shaft did to the driver's chest ? )

The other year, a Maryland Model A owner and his daughter were killed while they were driving their CC PU on I-70 in Howard County... "they weren't going far", but they were rear-ended by a distracted driver.


Be watchful, be aware; don't try to "swim with the sharks"...

 

[TudooR31]

I remember on road trips in the 50's you would see at least one major accident scene a day. Don't know if people are driving anymore skillfully but the cars certainly handle better today.

 

[todd3131]

I was in an accident with my roadster and I would like to post the photos if someone can tell me how. I was hit just inside the right front wheel and pushed the frame over a foot causing the passenger door to open and ejecting my wife out the door in between the two cars. I thought she was dead at the time but she never lost consciousness. That was twenty years ago in august. Not built for crashing.
Todd

 

[700rpm]

I was in an accident with my roadster and I would like to post the photos if someone can tell me how. I was hit just inside the right front wheel and pushed the frame over a foot causing the passenger door to open and ejecting my wife out the door in between the two cars. I thought she was dead at the time but she never lost consciousness. That was twenty years ago in august. Not built for crashing.
Todd

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[WTSHNN]

These were posted on the vintage pictures thread of the H.A.M.B. From the Boston Library archives...

-Tim

 

[1931 flamingo]

Easy restoration "projects".
Paul

 

[Tom Wesenberg]

Now, you can see why people should take the train, instead of driving.

Actually, it would sure be nice if the trains offered car ferry service, so I could load my Model A on the train for a long distance haul, then drive it when I arrive. The best of two worlds.

 

[MBI Houston]

Tom, someone loaded his A on the train in Florida and then drove it off the train outside of DC and then proceeded on the Blue Ridge Parkway Tour earlier this month. Really neat way to go on a tour!

 

[George Miller]

Sorry I have to disagree with "the last thing on the mfg's mind was safety" part of your statement. If you study Ford history or lived in the mid to late 50's you will know of Ford's 1956 Safety advertising campaign touting their padded dashboards, dished steering wheel, padded visors, seat belts, etc. The sad thing was that safety did NOT sale. In fact the campaign backfired on Ford as the public felt like Fords must be unsafe cars since they were pushing safety items. I think the other car companies learned from Fords misjudgement of the buying public and did not make a fuss over safety.

Sure cars of the 50's and 60's were relatively "unsafe" with their big engines, solid steel construction, drum brakes, etc but todays cars are just as "unsafe", if not more so, with their moron distracted drivers with all of the gadgets such as GPS, cell phones, CD players, etc. I think I had better odds driving in the 50's and 60's than in todays traffic.

I would have to agree.

 

[Kevin in NJ]

It is a false idea that the earlier cars were safer.

Most of the older cars were still not much more than the Model A. Some fenders hung on a body bolted to a frame. It was all decorative. The bodies ability to protect the people was limited. There was little if any thought in how to use the structures to absorb and transmit crash energy around the occupants.

The cars survived more on just pure 'mass' it was big metal and ordinary collisions at low speed (most accidents are around town low speed) would not be able to move very far into the metal. For higher speed (higher energy) accidents the cars collapsed and tore apart quickly. It is scary to look at all these 'safe' big old cars in the coffee table book full of accident pictures. They all came apart at any real speed.

Here is an example. Notice how the fender of the 59 is effectively useless and just tears away. You can see that the firewall of the 59 was crushed in, not good for someone in the drivers seat.
59 vs 09 Impala

The modern cars are 'glued' together and have strategically placed crumple zones to allow for the energy to be absorbed outside the passenger compartment. Well I should say in places to minimize occupant damage cause some cars are just too small these days.

With the advent of seat belt usage and other safety features the severity of injuries and death rate in modern accidents is way down. The cost is what you see in the basically disposable cars we see today.

 

[Hicktick]

Hey , Tom check this out , its a shame it only has one route .


http://www.amtrak.com/auto-train-your-car-your-stuff-and-you

 

[Tiny]

Here is my first hand experience with my ex-31 Roadster a few years back. Was going about 45 a guy suddenly pulled out in front of me. No seatbelt and I went flying. Not recommended for the faint of heart, trust me.

Let me put in a plug for seat belts here.....

Where did the front tire go? That's crazy. Glad you survived.

 

[59mgaguy]

In 1953 my Uncle Walt show up at our house with three of his buddies in a Model A four door. I got to sit in that car with the pull down rear shade and mohair. That's when I fell in love with the Model A. That same night my uncle and friends were T-boned when a guy ran a red light in Lorain, Ohio. One was killed and the rest hurt badly. The death and the injures were caused by the wooden in the car. My uncle Walt had one of the top bow go through his cheek and out his neck. (just one of his injuries) To this day I do not have any seat belts in my A and never will. I want to be thrown out instead of kept in. And if you look at the pictures of the wrecks and think if the people in the car were kept inside would they survive or how badly they would be hurt. On all my other cars from the 50's to my new every day vehicles I faithfully use a seat belt.

Seat belts do save lives. But like I stated I will not put them in my A. Just How I feel.

 

[29ModelA]

It is a false idea that the earlier cars were safer.

Most of the older cars were still not much more than the Model A. Some fenders hung on a body bolted to a frame. It was all decorative. The bodies ability to protect the people was limited. There was little if any thought in how to use the structures to absorb and transmit crash energy around the occupants.

The cars survived more on just pure 'mass' it was big metal and ordinary collisions at low speed (most accidents are around town low speed) would not be able to move very far into the metal. For higher speed (higher energy) accidents the cars collapsed and tore apart quickly. It is scary to look at all these 'safe' big old cars in the coffee table book full of accident pictures. They all came apart at any real speed.

Here is an example. Notice how the fender of the 59 is effectively useless and just tears away. You can see that the firewall of the 59 was crushed in, not good for someone in the drivers seat.
59 vs 09 Impala

The modern cars are 'glued' together and have strategically placed crumple zones to allow for the energy to be absorbed outside the passenger compartment. Well I should say in places to minimize occupant damage cause some cars are just too small these days.

With the advent of seat belt usage and other safety features the severity of injuries and death rate in modern accidents is way down. The cost is what you see in the basically disposable cars we see today.

While I don't doubt that new cars were safer, I hate when that video shows up. You can see the rust blowing out the bottom of the old car, that and they chose what is widely known as a poor design for accidents - it was a design that did not last long. The X frame platform, with the S A-Pillars was widely found to be VERY weak even new. I would have liked to at least see them use a ladder frame design that 90% of old cars were, and maybe a less rusty car.

 

[P.S.]

That crash test wasn't fair. The Impala had its motor and transmission (and who knows what all else) removed from it before the "test". That lightened the car considerably.

If the Impala was an intact car and they did that same test, the new car would have been pulverized by the full-weight old car and the motoring public would want the old ones, not the new ones from now on, and new car sales would suffer, etc.

 

[TonyM]

Wrecked 1937 Fords. Picked these up on the H.A.M.B. I am a little uncomfortable as a passenger in an antique (very old) automobile because of the lack of seatbelts. Not so much when I am actually driving the car. Too busy thinking about the task at hand.

 

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

This dude was DEAD after a police chase in Palestine, Texas!! Bill W.

 

[bhiland]

There are a lot of A crash pics on Internet dome have been posted. There are videos on you tube also.