Seven crazy car safety ideas

[FROSTYBALLS]

https://www.hagerty.co.uk/articles/the-pedestrian-scoop-and-6-other-crazy-car-safety-ideas/

[AndyN01]

Fascinating and there were clearly some very clever and ingenious folks around - and some bonkers ones too 😂

[Roy124]

What came of the idea of a spike on the steering wheel?

Surely airbags should xone under the heading of crazy 😆

If airbags protect car passengers,  why not fit them in aircraft?

I once saw a Ford Escort I think it was. US model, with automatic seat belt restraint.  The seat belt shoulder mount was fastened to a track on the top corner of the front doors and the lower buckle connector was fixed.

As the door was opened the belt was drawn forward and the driver would get in under the belt.  As the door was closed so the belt would restrain the driver.

 

[Corollanutter]

31 minutes ago, Roy124 said:

What came of the idea of a spike on the steering wheel?

Surely airbags should xone under the heading of crazy 😆

If airbags protect car passengers,  why not fit them in aircraft?

I once saw a Ford Escort I think it was. US model, with automatic seat belt restraint.  The seat belt shoulder mount was fastened to a track on the top corner of the front doors and the lower buckle connector was fixed.

As the door was opened the belt was drawn forward and the driver would get in under the belt.  As the door was closed so the belt would restrain the driver.

 

As far as I know this was only used in the US market. When Rover were exporting the Rover 800 to the USA they too had developed a system like this. Very cumbersome and costly. And you still needed to fasten the lap belt to prevent submarining. Thankfully it didn't last long!! All to save lazy people from fastening a seatbelt!  

[Roy124]

Chris,  about that time, NZ only required diagonal belts.   Great idea 🙂

I had seat belts fitted to my first car in 1964.  I opted for a fixed belt for the pax and an inertial for me.  The dealership was quite sceptical at the time.

A couple of years later, in Cyprus, after I was almost ejected from a Herald Convertible, I had a pair of belts posted out from UK. 

[Primus1]

Hasn’t the bonnet airbag been trialled by some manufacturers?, the idea that, in a low speed collision with a pedestrian, the airbag would deploy thus preventing the person hitting their head on the windscreen/bonnet..also, has the airbag system for motorbike riders as seen on moto gp, ever gone into production?

[FROSTYBALLS]

6 hours ago, Primus1 said:

Hasn’t the bonnet airbag been trialled by some manufacturers?, the idea that, in a low speed collision with a pedestrian, the airbag would deploy thus preventing the person hitting their head on the windscreen/bonnet

Some Jaguar Land Rover vehicles have bonnet airbags (called the 'pedestrian protection system') as standard. Remember last year, seeing an Evoque that had been involved in an accident and the bonnet airbag had clearly deployed

[dannyboy413]

All this talk about all the airbags in vehicles, why is there not just one - on the outside of the car permanently inflated? Everybody would be protected then, a bit like driving a giant marshmallow. 😉

[FROSTYBALLS]

54 minutes ago, dannyboy413 said:

All this talk about all the airbags in vehicles, why is there not just one - on the outside of the car permanently inflated? Everybody would be protected then, a bit like driving a giant marshmallow. 😉

... or we could follow The Prisoner's lead and have giant white spheres floating about -

-

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

One of British Leyland's safety car concepts, which featured a sprung 'cage' which, if a pedestrian was hit, caught the person and prevented them sliding down into the path of the front wheels.

Now restored, it is amongst other BL safety concepts at the British Motor Museum

[Tee_J]

Wow! Now, that is one sad looking car..!! 😂