RE: IML: Safety- Old cars vs New cars

["Ken Lang" <ken@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Kinda what I said Chris, only you said it much better.  :-)

Bottom line for everyone, there is not one car made that will give you
Diplomatic Immunity in an accident.  Drive Defensively. 

Ken
67 Crown 4 Dr Ht (needs a turn signal switch)
68 LeBaron 4 Dr Ht (also needs a turn signal switch)


________________________________________
From: mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Christopher H
Sent: Sunday, January 14, 2007 9:56 AM
To: IML (main)
Subject: 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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