Dynamics Of A Crash (1970s)

uses crash test footage to show the effectiveness of shoulder belts over lap belts.
We digitized and uploaded this film from the A/V Geeks Archives. Email us at [e-mail] if you have questions about the footage and are interested in using it in your project.

[@Willam_J]

When I was a teenager, before any seatbelt laws, I would rarely wear my seatbelt because I wanted to be ‘cool’. One day, I driving my friend somewhere and we saw some friends in another car. They took off expecting us to chase them. They lost control of the car, hit a light post, dragged the four foot base of it out of the ground, continued another 50 feet with the light post and base until they hit a tree and finally stopped. Neither one of them were wearing seat belts. When we caught up to them, they were still in the car and alive. I couldn’t believe they were alive. They were bleeding from every place a human could bleed from and one was spitting all of his teeth out and gasping for air. The saddest part of it was when the police got there and we could only tell the police who they were, but not which one was which. Their bodies were completely destroyed. They both spent a long time in the hospital but they were never the same. One was left with significant brain damage and the other had broken several vertebrae and is blind in one eye. (Not counting the MANY other lesser injuries they sustained.) I’ve worn my seatbelt every day since then, without exception, for the last 40 years. I have friends my age, right now, who still refuse to wear their seatbelts. I was lucky, because I learned from someone else’s mistake. They’re going to have to learn it the hard way. If you don’t wear your seatbelt, please, please, please start. You don’t want to put your families through the pain that my friend’s families went through. Peace and good luck to everyone! :-)

[@kevingram3423]

William J. What a story

[@watunnaam4127]

Let's take time to apreciate that this stranger spend all this time to write this just so maybe somewhere in the world some stranger would have fewer injuries in a car crash because he wore the seatbelt.

[@ארנבתפצ]

О как бывает

[@ארנבתפצ]

@@lowstaar RESPECT.

[@lowstaar]

Spaciba

[@Lightblue2222]

I feel weird without a seat belt. I like being held in all comfy instead of loose and sloshing around.

[@dancepiglover]

LightBlue2222 Me, too, yes! It is so weird. When I was a kid, the seatbelts in our car tightened and stayed tight. I always tightened it as much as it would go.

[@jerrypery5331]

I ride the bus alot when I sit down i keep looking for the seat belt

[@Bibyte]

thats the reason i never understand why that would make you look cool,the seatbelt makes your feel the car so much better.

[@jacobsinger97]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@santiyesss]

no seatbelt = fly weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[@Eli.BeamNG]

There's an old Spongebob episode where they used the scene with the dummy in the red shirt and they edited squidward's head onto the dummy's head when squidward crashed his boat. Never in my life would I have thought I would ever find out where they got that scene from...now I know...

[@mewreal]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqCrd6OQedypobc "ow"

[@jarofdelisauce2266]

I find it ironic how Squidward suffered a full frontal collision, but the footage was actually showing a rear collision test...

[@cyberpleb2472]

@@jarofdelisauce2266 The test was actually simulating a frontal crash. Accelerating the car backwards suddenly causes the dummies to impact the interior of the car due to their inertia. It's a cheaper way of simulating the effects of a frontal crash because it doesn't harm the vehicle. The physics are the same but the car body can be used in subsequent tests. Quite useful if all you are interested in are the motions of the occupants. * Edit: if they were simulating a rear collision, the car would have accelerated forward and the occupants would have been forced into their seats.

[@cowtippingrocks]

I'll be dammed. That's hilarious!

[@angelito250195]

Omg sameeeee

[@bobt5778]

I recall as a kid (I'm 58 now) wrecked cars with the telltale head impact patterns often with a hole in the windshield. Gruesome really... Seat Belts are simple and effective.

[@rxonmymind8362]

Just binged on video crashes. I guess there is a video of hole in the windshield and the body launched 25 yards from the car. No seat belt. Driver died too. High speed racing gone wrong. Sad they were just kids.

[@robertlewis1875]

It's not just forward impact that kills. I was driving on a freeway with tall shrubbery down the center median. A car suddenly burst through the bushes, rolling over and over. On one of the rolls a guy flew out the driver's window, straight into the air, higher than the 40-50 foot tall oak trees next to the road. His arms windmilled frantically until he reached the top of his arc; then he went limp and fell head first to the ground. The rest of the day was a blur. That was 1982, and I've never gone seatbeltless since, nor has anyone who rides with me.

[@bradparris99]

So many people have been needlessly injured or killed not just because they were slack or haphazard about seat belts, but because they absolutely refused to wear a seat belt. It was 100% intentional not to buckle up.

[@Flaccidtetris]

Saw that on a 2000s Ford Focus in a junkyard a few years ago 😬

[@nikobellic5655]

Still has better screen resolution than most videos from 2010.

[@Bartonovich52]

Hmm.... top of the line high speed camera vs a Nokia phone camera. Meanwhile.. maybe compare a HD digital cine camera from 2010 to a 1970 Super 8mm film camera.

[@nikobellic5655]

It was a joke.

[@jimmygrant424]

@@nikobellic5655 you sound like me. Lot of people get real uptight about these comments but they need to lighten up.

[@i2j9]

@@nikobellic5655 you want go bowling 🎳

[@Dylangamer-sv5zs]

.

[@Guenter34]

This is a brutal reminder of why its important to wear seatbelts. I dont even back out of my parking space until everyone has their seatbelts on.

[@jacquelineartis4315]

CarbonCrossroads same or if I find out someone doesn't have their seat belt on , stop somewhere until they do

[@aileenblas7669]

I don't even put the key in the ignition.

[@LITTLE1994]

Same.

[@petere8175]

In the backseat a seatbelt is optional in my opinion, seatbelts are a must in the front

[@drewlovelyhell4892]

My family does the same. The car doesn't move till everyone's buckled up.

[@allegory7638]

I lived right by a highway as a kid. One summer day in the 70s there was a head-on in front of our house and was the first time we ever saw and heard of a life flight helicopter. I don't remember what the second car was, but in the early-seventies Corolla, the woman driver's plastic-rimmed glasses (those big 70s type) were embedded in the windshield with the ear pieces still extended in the wearing position, one of those things one never forgets. I don't know how, but she was still concious and asking about her baby. This was before people used baby seats, I had never seen one. I saw about a 10 month old in a nest of towels/blankets where she had it riding in the floor well behind her seat, most people didn't even take that much care then, which definitely saved the baby from serious injury or death. She lived in the community and I later heard she made a recovery and the baby wasn't even hurt. Glad they survived and will never ever forget those glasses.

[@Mamo878]

Seat belts are for smart people. Don't be a dummy.

[@chrisvaughn5960]

Mamo oh i get it

[@unknownunknowns]

Mamo Yes, and that dummy Princess Diana has taught me that.

[@MrBakatsas]

Seat Belts are required to kill warning beeps and lights. They take a split second to buckle up and your life is in good hands.

[@nocturnal_sushi]

@@MrBakatsas good straps*

[@nocturnal_sushi]

So funny! I laughed as hard as a rock.

[@steelorse]

It's amazing how hard people understand the simple physics behind a seat belt. I would send the same people on a roller coaster without protection, I would love to hear their argument.

[@clement010200]

the argument on roller coaster: I know what I’m doin’

[@RIP-sw8gb]

BRUH

[@francoisguerette]

How the hell did I fing YOU, Steelorse, on this video... I just wanna say, I’m a huge fan

[@francoisguerette]

Steelorse, keep up the amazing content on beamng and all the other things you are making!

[@americanpsychoedit4554]

Yo whats up mon Quebecois préféré

[@thunderlmao]

Fun fact: 3:16 was used for an SpongeBob episode in 2007, this clip will show Squidward's head replaced the dummy's head, and will keep the red shirt and black pants.

[@kingtrophyguide4362]

When Squidward first wears a sunglasses, he screams in danger as he crashes into a brick wall. 🧱🚙 Squidward: **giggles, then screaming in danger** (crashing, glass shattering) "Ow..." 🤕

[@eaglewolffox6275]

Neat fact.

[@rednerivanpadasaycabra9229]

i came here because of that episode HAHAH

[@kevsingh]

A lot of people don't know this, but it's thanks to Volvo giving away the rights to the 3-point seat belt to other manufacturers that the adoption of the seat belt became much faster and a lot more lives were saved. Think about it, they could've kept it for themselves for years and used it for marketing their own cars. Thanks Volvo!!! :)

[@r5t6y7u8]

(In fairness, that wasn't Volvo's idea. They borrowed it from airplane pilots)

[@larrygro]

And it wouldn’t have been a big money maker for them anyway. How much money does the average consumer spend on safety?

[@ЮрийРулёв-и2ж]

@@r5t6y7u8 however, it's *Volvo's* patent and they brought it to automotive industry and gave the patent away *for free* to encourage other car manufacturers to install them *save lives* However, it wasn't any of the big American brands who crossed the margins and *thought outside the box* , it was swedes who did it! 😎

[@zakrytikzuk]

А то без них бы не подглядели и начали ставить

[@infofootage]

Appreciated by Volvo driver. 😊

[@Ynffy]

A collision is actually three parts. The vehicle hitting something. The passengers hitting something (dashboard, belts, airbag) and finally their internal organs hitting each other and the skeleton.

[@BiffMartin]

And the final collision is the tissues from the organs splattering all over the inside of your body.

[@richierudd]

So many people die days later if not properly checked out due to internal bleeding

[@georgemallory797]

That's actually excellent. I love this.

[@LITTLE1994]

Correct.

[@flighted2513]

This is why we have crumple zones, airbags, and seatbelts today all working in conjunction. A seatbelt won't save you from internal organ damage if your car has no crumple zones

[@tomsriv]

I saw a '70 Nova at the junkyard with a bench seat. The entire seat was taco-ed in the middle. Obviously someone was in the back seat and not wearing a belt. They likely seriously injured their friends in the front. So many people think they don't need them in the back. Well, if you are the driver ask them to buckle up, it will save your life too!

[@jasonpark5906]

I still remember when the idea of safety belts seemed idiotic. “The government trying to tell us what to do.” until one day when I was about 9 I watched my mom eat the stirring wheel of her Plymouth Duster in a low speed crash. She lived but busted 90 percent of her teeth. I’ve worn my seatbelt every since.

[@danieltakawi9919]

A worldwide safety feature that is being misconstrued as a way to control humanity. Sound familiar?

[@jasonpark5906]

@@danieltakawi9919 I don’t think Americans like being told what to do. Most of us have been conditioned not to trust the Government.

[@danieltakawi9919]

@@jasonpark5906 That's one of the points of conservatism, small government. But it's not about trusting the government. It's about trusting science (and history).

[@jasonpark5906]

@@danieltakawi9919 I can agree with that. Of course sometimes it depends on who is teaching the science and history. LOL

[@danieltakawi9919]

​@@jasonpark5906 Of course! That's why you don't only listen to only one doctor or doctors from one company or country. Check multiple sources and the information that overlaps is most likely the truth. The science of vaccines and viruses and diseases like smallpox have been around for at least a century. The only new part about COVID is the innovations in mRNA vaccines. Everything else your local doctor probably learned about in Med school.

[@lisaschumacher848]

My mom had a really bad accident when I was 16...I am 58 now (she passed away 2 years ago). It was in 1977. She had a Buick Regal. She was side swiped. Did not wear seat belts. Her face hit the steering wheel...lost her front teeth, was thrown to the passenger seat and broke both her arms. She was really messed up and took a year to recover. To this day I still have a fear of a bad accident. Just glad we have safer cars now. Especially since my son started to drive a year ago. 😕. I researched so many vehicles and watched these crash tests, before buying a car. Most people probably think I’m overboard...I really don’t care.🤷‍♀️

[@bluestargalaxy4]

That's not overboard, that's being intelligent, and the many that say you're being overboard are not. If the dead people from car accidents were given a second chance at life, would they research safer cars and wear seat belts? You have the opportunity to do what many would do if given another chance. I don't think that those people would think you're being overboard.

[@excess.subiefl0w]

Look at volvo or subaru, safest cars on the road

[@bldontmatter5319]

Literally all u need is a seatbelt and car built past 1975

[@bradparris99]

In the mid 70s when I turned 16 I had my grandfather's 1970 Buick Electra to drive. One night I decided to try out the lap and separate non-retractable shoulder belt. After finally getting the shoulder belt adjusted so it was fairly comfortable, I drove around a bit and was kind of surprised how much better I enjoyed driving the car being securely held in place. Pretty soon I was in the habit of buckling up both belts every time I drove. A couple of years later in college, a drunk driver in a Chevrolet Suburban crossed the center line and hit me head on. Because of the size and quality of the Electra along with the fact that I was securely buckled up, I walked away with minor cuts, scrapes and bruises from the belts. Far better that the un-belted drunk driver and his passenger. So, those earlier cars could be safe if you chose to wear the lap and shoulder belts. The problem was that very few people wore their lap belts and hardly no one wore the shoulder belts.

[@potatofuryy]

@@bldontmatter5319 That’s very much not true…

[@MegaZsolti]

Faceplant into the windshield, how nice that must feel.

[@alexpencek2172]

And he also hit the steering wheel so hard that he actually bent it.

[@TheTallMan50]

The impact would be so fast you wouldn't feel anything. And if you survive, when you finally regained consciousness you wouldn't remember it...or who you are for that matter.

[@da_man1154]

lol fuckin roasted

[@Whitevaliant01]

LIke washing your face with a cheese grater.

[@101Volts]

Just be glad this isn't an older car without the energy-absorbing steering column or the wheel could have jammed his head against the ceiling or penetrated his chest.

[@alphawoolf5981]

My parents had a '66 Baracuda, with me (and later my brother) in a little bucket-shaped "safety" seat that fitted over the rear bench seat. If we had been in a crash that thing would have shot me straight into the windshield like a little fleshy missile. Gotta love the engineering on that one. I've been in my fair share of accidents - always wear your seat belts!

[@fungustmaster]

interesting, they have good slow motion cameras in the past

[@vector6977]

the old high speed film cameras were better than the Digitals until pretty recently.

[@samsmith3025]

They had high speed cameras in the forties-fifties that were used to view nuclear explosions.

[@boltar2003]

Jesus, kids today think nothing decent was invented before they were born.

[@deleater]

It is not just the high speed frame rates, I have read somewhere that in the 70s they had cameras capable of capturing videos in a quality which is equivalent of today's 8K resolution, yeah 8k is 4 times the resolution of 4k which itself is 4 times the resolution of full hd (1080p). I read some Japanese files had utilized that resolution in the 70s. Some kind of Samurai movie was that.

[@stevefranklin8052]

Yeah, in the 70s, we also had electric lights, and indoor plumbing!! 😏

[@hebneh]

I bet a lot of people won't even know that there was a time before mandatory seatbelt laws. And like one of the titles in this film says, even when cars were required to have belts, hardly anyone ever wore them voluntarily. Fortunately for me, I always did, and survived a rollover crash in my 1971 VW Beetle in 1978 with only some scratches and aches. But even after that experience, my friends still ignored their own seatbelts. There weren't seatbelt laws till the 1980s, and that's what finally got people into them. Today, fortunately, most people wouldn't even consider driving without their belts on.

[@bighands69]

But is there really a need for seat belt laws. Most people are not wearing seat belts because the government forces them to. They are wearing them for their own safety. People wash their teeth and wash not because of law.

[@daltonmotley4742]

I still don't wear them

[@tylerdixon3290]

I think its because back in the 60s and earlier you really didn't have seat belt laws and some cars didnt even have seat belts. the 70s saw mandatory headrests due to the neck injuries and then mandatory seatbelts due to injuries sustained during a crash like the ones showed. if we didn't have laws requiring seatbelts they probably woudnt be worn but now its part of the law and a part of our lives.

[@frothe42]

hebneh I for one have always gave worn seat belts, as a child and certainly as an adult. It was something that was instilled in us by my mother, a nurse, who had seen her share of automobile accidents in the 1950's.

[@luckyluke5638]

+bighands69 Only a minority of people don't wear it in rebellion, seatbelt laws have been proven to dramatically increase seatbelt use.

[@dancinglizard6034]

and people still dont use seat belts

[@MisterTwister88]

jan haugen oh well, whataya gonna do

[@101Volts]

They're a minority anymore (or so I read.)

[@szili76]

jan haugen it is actually better to be thrown out to safety the sitting left in the car! Many youtube videos proof this. I never use seatbealt nor my family and my children

[@humanbeing4150]

szili76 Good keep doing that, let natural selection nail ya

[@aliceakosota797]

Human Being doesn't sound natural to be killed by something man made whether indirectly or directly soo whats a better choice of words?

[@avonee1976]

I never wore my seatbelt regularly until I took Driver’s Ed in school and then it became a habit. Twenty eight years later, I always wear my seatbelt and I make sure my son is strapped into his safety seat. Cars can be replaced. Lives cannot.

[@the_kombinator]

Damn, I'm coming up on 25 years of driving, and I can count the times on one hand I didn't wear my seatbelt (and once becase it broke, I remember that drive being very uncomfortable).

[@palco22]

Commendable but do you rely on your driving skills or rely on the car's safety features ?

[@the_kombinator]

@@palco22 Skills got me out of a lot more crashes than I was in, so, yeah mostly skills. And luck too I guess. Not discounting seat belts - had I not worn them in September of 2005, I don't know if I'd be typing this.

[@palco22]

@@the_kombinator Obviously all safety features built into todays vehicles are better than ever and with reason but are worthless if you consider the number one factor and that being the skills of the vehicle operator. I'm far from perfect (don't tell that to my wife) and I too was at 18 years old wild at times on the roads, granted it was another time (1960s). Honing driving skills is a never ending task. These acquired skills out perform any safety gadget found on a vehicle. Stay safe out there !

[@the_kombinator]

@@palco22 That's why I don't trust the nanny systems, nor do I have a car with any - my daily has ABS, I think that's it. Shoulder checks, safe braking distances, and constantly being aware of what's around you, the old fashioned way.

[@andycheng5750]

Amazing to see how far cars and safety features have come since the 70's!

[@palco22]

But it's the same dummy driving on public roads so what's the point ?

[@shifty2755]

Whilst driving standards have drastically worsened.

[@bradparris99]

Car safety has come a long way since the 70s. However in the 70s seat belt use was extremely low. As a teenager I had a 1970 Buick Electra that had been my grandfather's. I was that rare teenager that buckled up both the lap and shoulder belts when I drove. One night in 1982 I was coming home from college when a drunk driver hit me head on. Because of the size and quality of the Electra and the fact that I was securely buckled up with both the lap and shoulder belts, I walked away with only bruises from the belts and minor cuts and scratches. This was far better than the unbelted drunk driver who had massive head and chest injuries from the steering wheel and the dash. You had to use the available safety devices that were in those older cars.

[@jongibson4599]

When I was 18 I was in a frontal crash, and had only a lap belt. I got a broken nose & a blowout fracture, but the belt kept me from eating the windshield!

[@bradparris99]

I was 20 years old and driving a 1970 Buick Electra when I was in a head on collision. Fortunately the Electra had shoulder belts in addition to the lap belts and I was wearing both. I walked away with only bruises from the belts which was far better than the unbelted other driver who had massive head and chest injuries from the steering wheel. Seat Belts made a big difference for me, especially the shoulder belt.

[@blondy2061h]

This video showing you how great seat belts are. Now we have airbags all over plus seatbelts and better headrests and all of that only matters if the automatic braking system fails. Amazing how far we've come.

[@nemome5837]

Yeah, road deaths and injuries are a fraction of what they were back then despite their being many times more cars now. Interestingly, up till the 1960s manufacturers focus was on survival of the vehicle rather than occupants.

[@redtra236]

A LOT of cars still don't have automatic brakes...

[@davidmaiolo]

2:15 Was I the only one that thought, when he got into the car, he was going to be bad ass and drive the car into the wall himself at 35mph with his seat belt on?

[@dancepiglover]

David Maiolo Yeah, I was like “No! Don’t do it!”

[@VeederRoot]

Yeah same lmao. I was like please don’t 😂

[@vambat3523]

Imagine the guy got in the car and the old car started moving forwards, if i was him and that happened i would just jump off the car

[@srinitaaigaura]

Just shows you how much safer today's cars are. Just a few months back, a guy I knew was driving along with his family and lost control of the car and crashed into a tree. No one was wearing a seatbelt. He and his kid died. Scary thing is, we actually owned cars like these at one point. In today's crash tests, they're no stronger than cardboard. Seatbelt or not, still never forget rule #1 - Do not crash your car and rule #2 Do not let someone else crash into your car.

[@racegrubb2152]

Yeah, but they could still be a lot safer, there is a lot more that should be done, but then prices would be even more ridiculous

[@alfa_guy09]

1:45 The windshield doesn't break from the crash, it breaks because of the peoples heads smashing into it!

[@klk1900]

They didn’t take into account once you add a shoulder belt. Now the head isn’t restrained which resulted in multiple basilar skull fractures. Airbags are a head and neck device to prevent basilar skull fractures or the brain getting ripped threw the base of the skull by the spinal cord. People think airbags are to keep you from hitting the dash or exiting the vehicle but side airbags protect from whipping the head from a side impact. The front airbag for front impact. And head rest for rear end and also for front as well to a certain point if you recoil back

[@jasonsong86]

Seatbelt pretensioners has been added to cars for a while to take up the slack of the seatbelt so your body doesn't accelerate for a brief period of time before coming to a stop by the loose seatbelt.

[@lar4305]

I was in a head on car crash with a utility pole back in the late 1980's. I never used seat belts back then. i slid on ice and broke my jaw and knocked out 5 front teeth and was very banged up. After that i always had on a seat belt.

[@flilguy]

Glad they invented the lap and shoulder belt. I had a teacher tell us a story where her sister was in accident in the 1960s. A truck didn't yield the right of way at a stop sign and she hit the truck. She was cut in half by the seat belt.

[@drewlovelyhell4892]

Damn, what was she driving, a rocket-car?

[@jasonsong86]

@@drewlovelyhell4892 I think any speed above 60 it's pretty much unknown.

[@richierudd]

Back in 1985 or 1986 my father had just brought over a grey market Range Rover/ Land Rover. The suspensions were so "springy" terrible. I was travelling probably 35 miles an hour and a girl made a left hand turn in front of me. Absolutely no time to brake I grabbed the steering wheel and through my body towards the passenger side of the vehicle. The Rover flipped rear end over, catapulted onto the roof and projected and slid probably twenty feet. I can remember the sound of all the glass exploding at once; the entire roof had bent over to towards the passenger side as my head and elbow just barely touching the ground. If not for wearing my seat belt I probably would not be here or badly injured for life. Her Mustang where I hit the passenger door basically the car was destroyed right up to the armrest; thank god no one was in that seat or that she wasn't hurt either; quite a miracle everyone walked away. Seat belts are a must use no matter what anyone says.

[@whattheheck1000]

0:34 - If you're in that crash in that car (70s Olds) and wear your 3 point seat belt, you're going to be hurting badly, banged about, maybe have some broken bones but you'll almost certainly survive. That car's safety design is 40+ years old, it's nowhere near as safe as modern cars, but that's a violent crash that just shows how important seat belts are. The dummies in that crash had they been people probably would have been killed, because they weren't wearing their seat belts. Today, with the modern safety features they have, you can open the door and walk away in most crashes like that one (35 mph into a wall) if you have your seat belt on, but even in a modern car, you're probably going to be killed or severely hurt in that same crash without a seat belt. Airbags can't function well without the seat belt. January 10, 2016 8:55 am

[@randomfoxyfan2176]

whattheheck1000 my dad has a car from 1970 and good info for 70s cars bro!!!!

[@kanishkyadav1796]

aachi hai videos

[@MrSteve24fps]

A bit surprised to see the damage the '75 Olds 98 sustained but it WAS a stationary object that was struck.

[@dr666demento]

Been there, done that with a 1976 Chevy Nova. Belted in with the lap and shoulder belt. Walked away without a scratch. It only took a month to get the car back on the road.

[@VinylToVideo]

+whattheheck1000 - You'd probably say the same about my '88 Lincoln LSC compared to some "modern and safe" car. Having flipped my airbagless car upside down into a ditch and walked away from it to tell the tale, there's not one "modern and safe" car I would rather do the same thing in. Had I been in a Corolla I'd be dead. Will never drive cheap modern plastic shit.

[@_BAD_MERC_]

I used to drive a two truck. I remember towing a crash that totaled both vehicles but they both ran. My teenage daughter never liked to wear a seatbelt so I put her in the back seat of I think a Monte Carlo and ran into another car on my lot at IDLE speed and she wound up on the rear floorboard. She was ready, cocky, and prepared to "just hold on". We were going idle speed and she never questioned me again.

[@jasonsong86]

What people don't understand is in a crash, it's the same force as dumping from 3rd floor, you can't simply "hold on".

[@sdry]

Lol nice way to crack dashboard in half with your head. They must have been laughing their asses off at volvo back in the days.

[@mysock351C]

Never mind the US held the first commercial patents on airbags and also had the first viable installations in vehicles, but hey whos keeping score?

[@derbigpr500]

mysock351C Which score? Americans NEVER EVER came close to making cars as safe as Europeans did, especially 30 or 40 years ago. Who the fuck cares who held a patent on what if they were not competent enough to make a safe car? As for those "first viable installations", don't make me laugh, those air bags were so badly implemented that you'd almost be better off without them. Those big boats from the 70's were like tin cans, large, but flimsy and very weak structurally. Trust me when I tell you this as a mechanical engineer, those cars had 10 or more times less structural rigidity than the worst cars of today have.

[@ross4384]

US cars weren't and aren't as safe now.

[@mattiasjohansson1727]

This has nothing to do with US or Euro (or japanese). Most euro cars of the 70s was pure shit safety-wise. Not many more brands than Volvo, Mercedes and Saab did more than was required by regulations. American cars was no worse than many of the euros...

[@_kingcobraa_572]

Ross Gambino explain

[@Frank-sp7vu]

You can argue older cars are built like tanks with their giant steel bumpers, and reliable as heck, but in a high speed crash there is no way I'd want to be in one.

[@bradparris99]

They were safer than you think- if you wore both the lap and separate shoulder belts. As a teenager in the mid 70s I drove a 1970 Buick Electra and I was that rare kid that wore both the lap and separate shoulder belts when I drove. Of course, all of my friends thought I was completely nuts for doing so and usually I was the only one in the car with the belts buckled. Fast forward to coming home from college one weekend when a drunk driver in a Chevrolet suburban crossed the center line and hit me head on. Because of the size and quality of the Electra along with the fact that I was wearing both belts, I walked away with only minor cuts and scratches and bruises from the belts which was far better than the unbelted drunk driver in the suburban.

I have some 60s-70s auto magazines and in one of them, from 1972, there was an article on a Volvo experimental safety vehicule in which they said that "someday, in the future, you may walk away from a 80kph accident".

[@CDTILL1471]

Thankfully we now have so many more layers of protection today in the forms of airbags, pre collision, crumple zones etc. Looking at this video, even with the lap and shoulder belts, escaping injury seemed impossible.

[@gandalfwiz20007]

seatbelts life saver, also headrest prevent long term injuries to the neck

[@nvery5497]

0:35 "the car is erect. And the occupants are erect too" my misheard

[@DobermansRock]

My 1956 Ford F-100 came with a lap belt for the driver. Us kids just rode in the back.

[@terrancedactielle5460]

I cannot believe people still refuse to wear seatbelts. Anyone who's seen a car crash first hand knows the difference they make.

[@SMGJohn]

Interesting how structure integrity on the passenger part was kept very well on that old car and how the front crushed perfect to dampen the impact force.

[@alastairward2774]

By design or by virtue of being too big to crush completely?

[@raulsaavedraviolante4350]

@@alastairward2774 By design. Impact absorbing front structure made its way around 1967 and better fuel system integrity for 1968. Side door beams followed in 1970 for many models (it would be mandatory for all passenger cars in 1974). It would take a while before ABS and airbags were the norm.

[@SophiaAphrodite]

Based on the damage at 35, clearly the " They don't make them like they used to" myth is whole heartedly busted.

[@calvinnickel9995]

They don’t make them like they used to......... .......thank god!

[@jasonsong86]

yep, people think older cars with thicker body panels will protect better than modern cars with stronger chassis.

[@redtra236]

As far as damage to the car it is a lot less than on most modern cars, so I would disagree that the old cars are weaker. But they don't protect the occupants as well in a crash and that's what really matters.

[@martylevente8742]

at 1:55... just eats the dashboard...

[@SalandFindles]

😂😂😂

[@mikegallant811]

Dashboard du jour,Vince under glass....

[@Farahcarrera]

3:17 this looks like that one scene from spongebob where squidward is the dummy

[@babyjason7112]

Lel yeah

[@TheGreenDoggoOfWisdom]

Saki Farah This is actually that scene!

[@kingtrophyguide4362]

(crashing, glass shattering) Squidward: "Ow..." This is what happens when Squidward screams at the brick wall that his boat is about to get crashed.

[@kingtrophyguide4362]

3:16. Squidward: **giggling, then screaming in danger** (crashing into a brick wall, glass shattering) Squidward: "Ow..."

[@E34Benzin]

I love how the glove box just flies away. That's much better than an airbag! Manufacturers should take note.

[@MrGuruYoda]

Yes and also add ejector seats like in air planes

[@jonathantan2469]

The owners manual, maps, and piles of receipts should act as a cushion. :D

[@connerrodderick3526]

there is another crash video somewhere of an old car where the seat breaks away, the door opens, and the occupants are thrown out - almost an ejector seat!

[@novodkagohome9508]

I can see your path through several videos. Are we going the same way? Which is the last?

[@chryslerelectronicleanburn1676]

The glove box and the clock both fly away. The glove box is on top of the passengers side test dummy

[@281cobracar7]

Nobody wore seatbelts when I was growing up. I didn't start wearing them until 85 when I bought a car with t-tops. I remember watching a movie and the bad guy jumped in the passenger seat with a gun. He told the driver to start driving. The driver put on his seatbelt then drove the car into a stone wall. Of course the bad guy went though the windshield. The driver made a smart remark about wearing your seatbelt. Lol

[@jamezc63]

I was driving a semi, at 3 am in Montana, came over a hill and ran into a herd of cattle. The truck rolled, and I was ejected. Somehow, I survived with a lot of internal injuries. 10 years later I fell asleep and rear ended a parked rig at 72 mph (the speedometer was stuck on 72) and crushed the steering column with my chest and stuck my head through the windshield. 15 years later, still picking glass out of my head, but I’m wearing a belt.

[@jasonsong86]

Consider you lucky. Some didn't survive.

[@SalandFindles]

omg, I laughed HARD when the dummy's face single-handedly smashed the passenger side of that dashboard like a pancake. 😂

[@4g63_Everything]

😂😂😂

[@kingtrophyguide4362]

Squidward: **giggles, then screaming at the brick wall** (crashing, glass shattering) Squidward: "Ow..."

[@erikbunty2016]

Amazing what that does. That's with a force of possibly several tons.

[@jasoncarpp7742]

I've never ridden in a car that *didn't* have safety belts. And I always worn them. Never mind the law, it seems foolish to drive a car and not wear them. I've had my share of accidents where I'm glad I was wearing seat belts.

[@jasoncarpp7742]

@Ben Beasley I agree. Same here. I don't even think about it. I just do it.

[@generalyellor8188]

Is there even such a thing as a car without a seat belt these days? I mean one legal for the road?

[@jasoncarpp7742]

@@generalyellor8188 Exactly! I've never driven or ridden as a passenger in a car that *didn't* have seat belts. :)

[@redtra236]

@@generalyellor8188 Yes in the US passenger cars manufactured prior to 1965 and trucks prior to 1971 do not even require a lap belt. Shoulder belts weren't common until 1968-1969. Any of these old vehicles that were not equipped can still be driven without them legally in all states, although I believe some states do ban transporting children in them.

[@doctorbohr1585]

Nowadays, we have seatbelts, airbags and 5 star crash results, so you don't have to worry how you drive!

[@mxbx307]

And in those days, in many cases the glass was *proper* glass like you got in your house. Not the modern shatterables and safety glass.

[@ronch550]

Back in 2001 we ran into a big electric pole in a Civic. The road was wet and apparently we lost control because the car didn't have ABS then. I wasn't wearing my seat belts and I was on the front passenger seat. The car also didn't have airbags and I lunged forward and hit the windshield with my head. I realized I was bleeding but it was only in the hospital that I knew that there's a piece of glass sticking in my forehead and they had to pull it out. Makes me cringe today when I think about it but I didn't feel anything back then when they pulled it out. My head was already numb, I guess.

[@damonlemasters3424]

You don't need ABS if your car is in good working order and you know how to drive.

[@kemro5461]

@@damonlemasters3424 That's not true, you can always be surprised by a loss of grip.

[@Hyrppa95]

@@damonlemasters3424 No human can brake better than ABS.

[@vambat3523]

Damn that must have hurted a lot

[@carmencoke_8540]

i'm so thankful that my parents always forced me to wear my seatbelt! It takes literally 4 seconds and it can save your life...

[@inn8media]

I've always wondered why in many american movies including modern, they don't wear seat belts. Interviews, documentaries even. Had me gobsmacked.

[@davidca96]

Cars have made incredible leaps in frontal crashes since the 70's. Back then the whole cab caved, cars these days throw the energy around and out and the cab stays fully intact usually.

[@twoeightythreez]

The cabin seemed to hold integrity fairly well especially considering that it was a pillar less 4 door hardtop. I don’t even want to imagine how badly it would have done on a side impact test

[@jasonsong86]

@@twoeightythreez It held well because it's a full frontal crash. If you take the same car and test with today's 25% small overlap test at much higher speed, the A pillar will probbaly end up touching the b pillar and the dash and steering wheel will be in your chest.

[@mungo7136]

I remember the time when there was a discussion about seat belts as they either became mandatory or the police started really to check their use. it was like: - I do not use them as there was one guy unable to leave the car after the crash - I do not use them as only one person survived the crash flying out through the windshield - I do not use them as it cut the neck on one guy (bad belt placement probably) They have never seen films like these neither they were able to think about comparison between rare unique situation and the common ones

[@josephgaviota]

As a teen, I was driving a 1955 Chevy pick-up with no seatbelts, a metal dash, multiple sharp knobs on the dash, no air bags, a single master cylinder ... now as an "older" fellow, I have air bags, seatbelts with shoulder harnesses, a collapsible steering column, crumple zones, dual master, anti lock brakes ... I probably needed the technology as a dumb kid and didn't have it; now as a mature, seasoned, careful driver, I have all that technology. Seems backward =:-0 PS: don't forget, my '55 Chevy pick-up had 20 gallons of gasoline sitting right behind the driver's seat !!

[@redtra236]

The dual bowl master cylinder is a really underrated safety improvement, that's the only safety upgrade I made to my 1966 Ford F250.

[@LITTLE1994]

Shows how important seat belts are. But this is different from a modern car with air bags, because yes, the seats belts will save your life in a classic car that has them, but that stiff metal body makes you take the force far more, especially in a body on frame, and you most likely still get internal injuries. It's scary. For me, because I once drive an '89 Crown Vic, I'll NEVER ride without the belts, as that's the only safety I got. But it's so sad so many people don't take seat belts so seriously, even with the laws.

[@bradparris99]

Backing college in 1982, I drove a 1970 Buick Electra. It had the separate lap and shoulder belts- a total of four belts and two buckles and I wore both the lap and shoulder belts when I drove. One night a drunk driver in a Chevrolet suburban crossed the center line and hit me head on. Because of the size of the car and the fact that I was wearing both belts I walked away with only bruises from the belts.

[@jasonsong86]

Actually, newer cars are much stronger than older cars. If you watch a new car crashing into an old car, the new car will hold it's cabin way better than the older cars.

[@LITTLE1994]

​@@bradparris99Yeah, the biggest cars back in the day do help a lot due to their mass alone.

[@bradparris99]

@@LITTLE1994 Especially if the driver and passengers were smart enough to wear their lap and shoulder belts. I am certainly glad that I was one of only a few that did buckle up both belts back then. They probably saved my life in that head on collision.

[@denos.2688]

This was 50 yrs a go and now 50 yrs later the law is requiring that people in the back seat now must be restrained in a harness seat belt. 2020 has been so hard on us.

[@baconcatsizzle]

1:05 AAAH! A BRIDGE PIER! *swerves, crashes* AAAH! A TREE! *swerves, crashes* AAAH! A POLE! *swerves, crashes* OHH, FUCK! AN INCOMING CAR! *dives out the window with a tuck-and-roll*

[@timothylegg]

It's so hard to believe I never wore a seatbelt until I was maybe 14. My father never wore them. He said it was his right to never wear one and was mad as hell when it became law and then refused to, just to prove a point. I never really understood that. He still doesn't wear them.

[@drewlovelyhell4892]

You should take him sky-diving, see if he's too stubborn to wear a parachute.

[@jasonsong86]

Smart people learn from experiences. Dumb people learn from mistakes.

[@johnp139]

Then injuries caused by people NOT WEARING seatbelts should not be covered by insurance.

[@Kref3]

A colleague of mine still today refuses to wear seatbelts. He claims that he feels restricted in his movement by them (I never wished to do any movement while driving that would be restricted by belts) and he also feels unsafe because he cannot escape the car quickly if it is burning. The arguments that cars almost never burn after accidents, but even if it would by some freak situation he will not even survive the accident to the moment the fire might get close to him without a belt were made to him, but he does not care. He uses a clothespin at the belt to keep it extended and places it over his chest without fastening it, so that police officers from the outside would think he was buckled in correctly and then he drives like that. All the time the car is beeping at him of course. He does not care, he just ignores the beeping. Even taking the safety considerations out of the loop, the beeping over hundreds of kilometers is so annoying, that I would fasten my seat belt after minutes. He drove like that from Germany all the way through France to southern Spain.

[@floycewhite6991]

Hit my head against a 1960 NSU Prinz II windshield as a passenger when the brakes failed at maybe 5 mph. No injury. Years later, saw a Prinz II in a lot behind a 7-Eleven with a circular smash in the windshield. No doubt the driver was killed. The Prinz didn't have seatbelts.

[@Quasihamster]

"Me, or you, or someone you love." Well I imagine it's someone I hate, makes it really pleasant to watch.

[@eddevelo9269]

With air bags the big oldsmobile would have been okay, If you notice the front doors and passenger compartment did not collapse. You could do some serious damage with that car if you hit a Honda civic with its heavy steel box frame and bumper.

[@seanfyodorovich5230]

You just don't get it, Harry. Better to replace a car than be a vegetable or dead.

[@jogmas12]

I would rather be a 2021 civic than a 70s car in a head on collision. Today’s cars are built to higher crash standards. Even at 50mph a modern civic has a sturdy crumpled zone

[@thedarkknight4243]

great 70s educational video, vehicles of the time and earlier did not have modern safety ratings and body engineering that would save lives by a greater margin.

[@AnyManProjects]

That white interior tho… so nice

[@ProfessionalDriver101]

It’s simple, straight to the point and gets the point across without being condescending

[@justaplayer002]

3:13 Squidward as a crash test dummy

[@kingtrophyguide4362]

*(Screaming)* 😱 *(crashing, glass shattering)* Squidward: "Ow..." 🤕

[@Surrenitie]

"CRASHES THAT NEED NOT KILL" ~IIHS, some time in the 70s

[@coorvahmuch2379]

Thank for 3 point seat belt was not patented

[@Failix001]

Thanks volvo!

[@newname3718]

things that save lives arent supposed to be patented. there should be reward but not through patent style.

[@AnimMouse]

No, 3 point seat belt was patented U.S. Patent 3,043,625.

[@AnimMouse]

@@newname3718 No, patent does not mean like that, it's actually the opposite. Patent is not trade secret.

[@bluesharp59]

I wish I had that big old cool Oldsmobile. They were good cars. Thumbs up on thumbs up on your video.

[@CoreTech951]

Check you the video (don't know the exact name) in which only the front passenger wears a seatbelt, but the rear one doesn't - when they crash at 35 mph, the rear passenger is thrown forward into the front passenger, pushes him and the seat itself forward and they all smash into the dashboard. So yeah, I refuse to drive off without EVERYBODY wearing their seatbelts - it may seem uncool but I've been in 3 serious crashes (wasn't me driving) and I still thank god I was wearing a belt

[@steveb9151]

0:23 For the sake of accuracy, the driver dummy in this particular car should've been wearing a fedora and plaid jacket, and the turn signal needs to be blinking (for no apparent reason).

[@TylersNeighborhoodGarage]

Shoulder belts were mandated by law Jan. 1 1968, but until sometime in the '70's, the shoulder portion had to be fastened manually to the lap portion. Chrysler vehicles started using 3-point belts in 1973 and attempted to enforce belt usage on 1974 with a seat-belt interlock starter interlock. That was doomed to fail for at least a couple reasons: #1 being that it was an american car company, the thing rarely worked right and caused more problems than it solved, and #2 even back then people were defiant goons and figured out how to disable it so they could be killed that much quicker. With car companies having so much technical ability these days, they could implement a mandatory selt belt usage feature in every vehicle just like *that*, but the federal government has so far declined to endorse it.

[@thegeneral1955]

I have a 73 dart with the manual shoulder strap. Have debated using it not sense it’s basically connected to metal with no leeway in case of an accident wouldn’t it just crush my ribs?

[@TylersNeighborhoodGarage]

@@thegeneral1955 It's possible, but keep in mind that even the belts with retractors lock up in a wreck.

[@bradparris99]

@@thegeneral1955 In 1978 I got my grandfather's 1970 Buick Electra to drive when I turned 16. After about a week of seeing the "Fasten Seat Belts"printed above the steering column I decided to try the lap and shoulder belts mainly out of curiosity. I was amazed at how much better the car drove and handled with the belts buckled and got in the habit of wearing them all the time. Of course all of my friends thought I was nuts for buckling up. Fast forward to 1982 and I was coming home one weekend from college and a drunk driver in a Chevrolet suburban crossed the center line and hit me head on. Because of the size of the car and the fact that I was wearing both the lap and shoulder belts I walked away with only bruises from the belts which was far better than the unbelted other driver who had massive head and chest injuries from the steering wheel. In my case, the lap and especially the shoulder belt made all the difference.

[@Handiman544]

And this is just 30 mph. Imagine the same collision at 70 mph.

[@usefulpineapple4538]

So when seatbelts became required back in the late 60s my grandparents had an older car that didn’t have seat belts. So they decided to have them installed into their car. Then one day their dog decided that the seatbelts would make a tasty snack😂

[@kingtrophyguide4362]

3:16. Squidward: "Ha, ha!" (Screaming in danger) *(crashing, glass shattering)* Squidward: "Ow..."

[@stephencannon3140]

My Brother in law worked at a volunteer rescue squad mainly for experience and my sister worked to get experience for her eventual nursing degree and career. Almost 40 years later he tole me something that rings true and I remember to this day. “I never unbuckled a dead person”. I think if that every time I buckle up. My first accident by physics should have been my last....(Fatal). Black Ice inexperience and bad luck. Black ice and slid into a telephone pole. Impact point was drivers B pillar in which the windshield popped out fell on the snow, windshield wipers fell to the dashboard and the peg that the linemen used to climb the pole pierced the drivers door. Another degree or two of slide or another couple of MPH Impact speed the peg could have pierced my kidneys. I shut engine off, assessed situation, did the ground evacuation and went across the street to call the Police. I was safe but of course vehicle was Totaled. This accident was in late 86 and the car was a mid 70’s Peugeot with probably state of the art safety for 70’s but probably wouldn’t have met mid 80’s Safety Standards. Safe but the part I felt real bd about is we had just picked the vehicle up from the mechanic the day before to get it winterized, water pump, coolant flush, oil change, etc..... My first car while I was out in California for the Navy was a 1979 Volvo. I believe 7 or nine series but a real nice one. Volvo has lost some of the safety competitive edge but I still think they are the safest overall vehicle design.

[@paulgrimm7842]

Drove a semi for 39 years and always wore seat belts

[@SuperAgentman007]

1:19 when do the toccata airbags deploy?

[@suem6004]

Anyone remember drivers ed in the late 70s? They showed actual post accident footage to scare us kids into wearing seatbelts. It worked. Now please please be sure your pets have proper car protection. There are newer crash test videos about car safe restraints and carriers

[@THEFlea1991]

Easy fix. Don’t own pets.

[@kingtrophyguide4362]

3:16. Squidward: "Haha." *(screaming)* 😱 *(crashing, glass shattering)* Squidward: "Ow..." 🤕

[@kevinmcintosh9990]

I actually still know people that do not wear seatbelts that amazes me

[@litmus7325]

Glad my parents forced me to put a 3 point belt in my buick. Holy hell

[@jeffmayo2439]

Lets show a Takata Air bag removing the face of a person at slo mo.

[@cellulanus]

Not wearing a seat-belt is actually worse today then it was back then thanks to airbags. If you're not wearing a seat belt there is a possibility that you will impact the airbags before they have time to deploy, turning them from a cushioning device into delivering the force of a grenade onto you.

[@mklrd4evr]

My mom was born in the year 1970 during this commercial

[@ShazzPotz]

Was your mom born in the back seat of the car that crashed? Was she okay afterwards?

[@W1ldmutt]

Wow that video can make you think twice about what happens if you dont wear a seatbelt.

[@mbaer5]

1:50 seats more comfy than your parents sofa

[@dashriprock3468]

Too bad they ruined a beautiful Oldsmobile Ninety Eight.

[@rxonmymind8362]

That leather was beautiful.

[@trabant6019]

That was probably brand new back when this was made

[@richsackett3423]

I think you meant too big, dowdy and plain.

[@kyboy5]

These big cars are the shit right now every one wants one

[@TheLegend-vl7os]

When I was a kid in the 80's Belt was not necessary There was no traffic violation at that time Therefore, traffic accidents were fatal at that time American cars are very luxurious and comfortable But in terms of safety zero percent The best cars of the 80s Mercedes-Benz

[@williamthegreat9632]

they save lives but they give you some serious whiplash

[@blakesworld4463]

Its been like 2 years since I saw this

[@thatamerican550]

Yeah I can't even imagine not wearing my belt in the drivers seat, it's amazing my parents generation probably never cared to

[@chargermaster586]

thatamerican550 The 1970s Was the Rise of EPA laws emissions Laws and safety laws.

[@MileyonDisney]

I understand and appreciate the car crash tests, but it sure is sad to see a beautiful old car like that demolished.

[@devn_08]

That's what I was thinking

[@redtra236]

Wasn't old at the time of the video lol

[@mushygirlsiniran]

4:41 TERMINATED.

[@drewlovelyhell4892]

Can't argue with that. In America, the seatbelt rules vary from state to state, and the laws in New Hampshire are particularly lax.

[@HenryAshy]

Whenever I’m in a car I always put on my seatbelt knowing that this could happen and it’s always smart to wear your seatbelt cause it could also be like a crash without them when you brake hard and if your uncomfortable because of it and don’t wanna wear it atleast wear just the lap belt part cause it’s way more safe then with no lap belts