The most important gadget in your car

The stereo? The A/C? Dash wiring? Not even close.

[#1 posted by Secret_Life_of_Plants, November 25, 2008 8:28 PM]

So the airbag didn't help?

[#2 posted by 1timstreet, November 25, 2008 8:51 PM]

I remember another British PSA where the teen boy in the back seat who is not wearing a seatbelt kills his mother who is driving and is wearing her seatbelt.

[#3 posted by Anonymous, November 25, 2008 9:03 PM]

I don't get it. If it's the momentum of his organs slamming against his ribcage that kills him, wouldn't he still die with a seat belt on?

[#4 posted by LegoShark, November 25, 2008 9:06 PM]

I tend to hate these kinds of announcements... I heard a thing on the radio for boating safety, and it went into detail about the blood in the water, etc...

Not a great thing to hear in the morning.

[#5 posted by technogeek, November 25, 2008 9:43 PM]

#1 and #3: The seat belt is the primary safety device. An airbag isn't intended to do the job alone, and in a serious impact it isn't sufficient.

As I understand it (and I'm *not* an expert, nor do I play one on TV), with both systems employed your maximum instantaneous rate of deceleration -- and thus the maximum force inside the body -- is less than if you're stopped by either one by itself. That's essentially the same reason modern cars are designed with "crumple zones"; anything that brings the passenger to a halt less suddenly causes less injury.

(The belt also stops you from being thrown clear of the car -- and before you say "maybe that would be better", look at the survival statistics for the two; they've been widely published. Again, being stopped by the system is less damaging than the alternative.)

If I had to pick just one, I'd pick the belt, and I think the numbers back me up on that.

(Your mileage will vary. Void where prohibited. Do not remove under penalty of law.)

[#6 posted by matt blank, November 25, 2008 9:45 PM]

I'm imagining Judi Dench chastising Daniel Craig for not using proper restraints in his Aston Marten for some reason...

[#7 posted by SpeckledJim, November 25, 2008 9:46 PM]

So the airbag didn't help?

Probably, but it depends on where you are. In the UK and most other countries, air bags are designed to supplement seat belts, not replace them. They won't do all that much on their own.

[#8 posted by holtt, November 25, 2008 10:14 PM]

I was expecting "Teardrop" to come on there after the inner body part.

[#9 posted by Julian Bond, November 26, 2008 12:33 AM]

And the real lesson here? Don't screw up and be involved in an accident. Aim for a 6 sigma, zero screw up life and you won't have to test how well your crumple zones, seat belts, air bags, car design actually works in real life.

[#10 posted by FoetusNail, November 26, 2008 12:53 AM]

Warm Leatherette by The Normal, as covered by Trent Reznor, Jeordie White, Peter Murphy

(warning avoid the version that includes the scareumentary clips)

[#11 posted by tw15, November 26, 2008 1:15 AM]

I'm pretty sure European airbags are different to US airbags. US airbags are bigger, as it is assumed the passengers won't be wearing a seatbelt. The downside of the US ones is, I think, the airbags can cause injuries themselves. The seatbelt + airbag combo, I guess, is the safest option.

[#12 posted by smf, November 26, 2008 1:27 AM]

The maker of the ad explains it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmNlHt80KGc

[#13 posted by BrerMatt, November 26, 2008 3:21 AM]

So Danny Aiello wouldn't have survived the end of Hudson Hawk?

[#14 posted by acb, November 26, 2008 5:10 AM]

I once read that the first airbags on the market actually killed people; what the designers (working with crash-test dummies) didn't notice in their tests that at the angle at which they operated, when hitting a live human being in a crash, they would neatly snap their neck. I think (or at least hope) that this has been fixed fairly quickly.

[#15 posted by Latente, November 26, 2008 5:24 AM]

@#2

me too.

In Italy we have a better solution, we buy Suvs :P

[#16 posted by WalterBillington, November 26, 2008 6:03 AM]

I bet the ASA like this ad. What a fine example of British Advertising. Clear, concise, accurate and useful.

It's always encouraging to remind yourself that every air safety authority in the world recommends clearly that passengers should travel facing backwards. Forwards is a bit dangerous.

[#17 posted by Hal, November 26, 2008 7:36 AM]

My favourite seatbelt ad here (from NI): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGG_WSOVDWY&NR=1

[#18 posted by Anonymous, November 26, 2008 8:44 AM]

I gotta say, I'm really digging on the slogan: "What's stopping you?" WAY better than "Click it or Ticket".

[#19 posted by muteboy, November 26, 2008 8:59 AM]

Captain Scarlet drove facing backwards. Then again, he was immortal.

Sing YAY for gruesome public info films. I (vaguely) remember one when I was a kid:
"Polish a floor and then lay a rug on it? You may as well set a MAN TRAP!"
Then a man arrives home from the hospital with his new-born baby, he walks into the house, and you hear a big thump. Nice.

[#20 posted by simonemarie, November 26, 2008 8:59 AM]

aaah. i'm eating!

[#21 posted by technogeek, November 26, 2008 9:07 AM]

#20: I re-learned that lesson recently. I was using a spray wax on a chair, and forgot that the overspray would accumulate on the floor. Next time I stepped in that spot wearing only socks, down I went.

BTW, one of the things you learn when playing Judo is how to fall without injuring yourself. It's a VERY useful life skill.

[#22 posted by dustbuster7000, November 26, 2008 10:39 AM]

Airbags have gone through a number of iterations of design over the years, early ones could break peoples noses and other kinds of nastiness. The new bags are dual action type, with a very rapid partial inflation, followed by a slower (in a relative sense, still really fast) secondary inflation, so that be the time the persons head arrives at the bag, its stopped inflating and is starting to deflate. Thus less of a slap in the face. Most airbags in the US are marked as SRS (supplemental restraint systems) or something similar, that is, to be used *in conjunction with* a seat belt, not as a replacement for one. Note that the head of the driver in the advert goes over the top of the airbag and into the windscreen, rather than into the airbag. Belt, esp. those with pre-tensioners, will arrest forward motion and properly position the persons body parts to maximise the usefulness of the airbag. It's probably worth mentioning that the risks associated not using with airbags or seatbelts, far, far outweigh those associated with their use (for those planning on promoting driving a car without a belt on).

[#23 posted by V, November 26, 2008 12:21 PM]

Umm, sorry, but the most important safety gadget in the car is the driver's brain. Over the last 40+ years, we've made loads of things to make a car safer - seatbelts, crumple zones, airbags, etc. - but very little to make drivers safer....

Work on that, and we may get somewhere.

[#24 posted by jhoug, November 26, 2008 12:27 PM]

One thing? Three things!:
Seat belts
Airbag
Engineered crumple zone

The seat belt holds you in your seat and and supports the spine,

the airbag keeps the head from flying forward, and therefore protects the cervical spine (whiplash or worse),

the crumple zone absorbs a large amount of the impact by spreading the impact force over time.

[#25 posted by Honad, November 26, 2008 3:18 PM]

#23 - DING DING DING!

Automotive safety starts with driver training.

The formal driving exam in the US is a joke. Mine consisted of a 20 question, multiple-choice written exam which requires 65% for a passing grade and a drive of 3 blocks, never exceeding the posted 25mph speed limit and a parallel park. There was no formal training requirement, only a $20 fee and as long as you never let your license expire, they assume for the rest of your life that you know how to drive.

On the roads are a bunch of D students with no training in control of hair trigger weapons.

Maybe one of these:
http://www.streetsurvival.org/

Some of this:
http://www.evoschool.com/

A bit of that:
http://www.bondurant.com/

[#26 posted by cha0tic, November 28, 2008 5:58 AM]

I still like the idea of the big spike in the middle of the steering wheel pointed at the drivers chest.

[#27 posted by FoetusNail, November 28, 2008 3:26 PM]

Once had a customer who had certificates of completion from Bob Bondurant's Racing School hanging on his office walls. What were we talking about?