Model A CRASH??

Richard Wilson said:
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.
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I agree. That's why I want my first and only car to be a Model A Ford. No distractions to cause problems. :)

I do agree with the today's cars being just as dangerous part. Cars today, sure have airbags. Airbags that deploy and can easily break someone's neck as well as starve them for air. Sadly, today's cars have distractions such as "GPS" and Computers that are built right inside the dashboard where you can easily get distracted. To add, Radio's. When I was 2 I was involved in a car wreck because someone tuning the radio. The good part of it is that car's made today are mostly made of plastic. Some plastics are easily breakable and can't really "cut" you, but some plastics (like the plastic they make the dashboard of car's out of) are hard and can really cut you up like a steak knife.
 
in the above wrecked 28 phaeton, the circumstances were, to the best of my recollection:

There were 4 people in this car. It was hit head on at 45 mph by a toyota truck turning left and trying not to have to stop to let them pass. They had seatbelts and all survived. The front passengers suffered serious injury: crushed ribs, broken legs, etc, but they recovered, albeit slowly. The car was restored by the Rouge River A's and ran again, only to be hit head on once more with 2 passengers. They survived as well because they had seatbelts. My poor friend Ewart was killed in a similar accident in his tudor, when he was thrown on to the pavement from the car, as he had no seatbelt.
 
pat in Santa Cruz said:
in the above wrecked 28 phaeton, the circumstances were, to the best of my recollection:

There were 4 people in this car. It was hit head on at 45 mph by a toyota truck turning left and trying not to have to stop to let them pass. They had seatbelts and all survived. The front passengers suffered serious injury: crushed ribs, broken legs, etc, but they recovered, albeit slowly. The car was restored by the Rouge River A's and ran again, only to be hit head on once more with 2 passengers. They survived as well because they had seatbelts. My poor friend Ewart was killed in a similar accident in his tudor, when he was thrown on to the pavement from the car, as he had no seatbelt.
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Please note that in the crash photos, the body of the vehicle never left the frame. Attaching the seatbelts to the frame should not be a worry.
 
pat in Santa Cruz said:
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
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might sound crazy but that seems like a bloody blast!!!!! makes me want to build a speedster.
 
Long Beach, California 6.4 earthquake. Struck at 5:55 P.M. March 10, 1933.

Tom Endy

Sorry, photo did not post.
 
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is this the one you meant, Tom?
 
Question on post # 12 about "Pucker-Factor" If I was driving it, would have been 379! Did I win something??
Strangely though, I never ever remember seeing a badly wrecked Model A, just a few fender benders and in the '50's, I worked in a wrecking yard also. In England, they are known as "breaking yards." Bill W.
 
One thing that struck me was the lack of fiery explosions, Ala Hollywood. Just one photo of a burned A and it wasn't in a wreck! Yet drivers and passengers rode with the gas tank in their laps!
 
Old Cars Weekly (Krause Publications) has a book "Antique Car Wrecks"........ "with over two hundred selected photos stressing driving safety among collectors". copyright 1990. It is not just Model A wrecks but other cars as well. All pictures are pre 60's.
 
Here are a few
 

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surely there would be statistics going back to some time frame about wrecks/fatalities per 1000 vehicles; though I suspect the system did not maintain those kinds of studies in Model "A" days though insurance companies must have had some idea....
 
40 Deluxe said:
One thing that struck me was the lack of fiery explosions, Ala Hollywood. Just one photo of a burned A and it wasn't in a wreck! Yet drivers and passengers rode with the gas tank in their laps!
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I personally think that it's the best place for the tank. You never see it hit unless it's a rollover or it's crash so hard into the passenger compartment. The only downside is the potential for leakage.
 
At what point do you think the driver of this coupe realized things weren't exactly going well?
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-Tim
 
As they say speed kills. When the Model A went on sale the speed limit outside of the city was 35MPH. It was only 15MPH in the business districts and 20MPH in the residential areas. It appears from the collisions people were exceeding the speed limits of the time.
 
This is the stuff that has gotten scary for me, now that my cars are all put together nice and driveable, I'm afraid to get hit by some idiot adjusting his cell phone settings or another fool pulling out just in front.

You guys all be careful this winter with wet roads and stormy weather!!!!
 
If you look at the fatalities now,and the fatalities then you can really how much safer we are now with the faster cars,heavier trucks,cell phones,texting,GPS,CD players,etc.I have a few old state inspection stickers I've collected over the years.In the late 30's N.H.would put the amount of fatalities for the previous year on the back of the sticker.In 38 or 39 the sticker reads 102 fatalities for the previous year.That was for a fraction of the cars we have on the road now.And it was done with slower,low distraction cars.The distractions now are scaring me.I see it on a daily basis.I watched a fellow a few days ago stop on main street while talking on the phone,then hit the gas and blow right through the stop sign a quarter mile away.He acted like he was on a clear road.Never even knew it was there.A local cop saw it and went after him.He later told us that he followed him with the lights on and blipping the siren for nearly two miles before the guy noticed him and hung the phone up.He was a half mile into the next town before he got him stopped.That guy didn't get any kind of a break.
 
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