As someone whose daily driver is now a car 45 years old--when I'm not in a new test vehicle--watching this video and seeing a vintage car needlessly destroyed, was quite sobering and equally disturbing.
Robert Farago, the head honcho over at thetruthaboutcars.com called me on Wednesday with a heads-up on a truly disturbing video that they linked to and posted earlier today. To prove a point that cars are safer today than they were 50 years ago (tell us something we don't know already guys), the anti-car Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) crashed a 1959 Chevy Bel Air into its modern day counterpart, a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu. Besides proving the obvious--that today's cars are safer than they were 50 years ago--I found this to be a rather strange way to celebrate their 50th birthday. What I think might be called into question, besides their methodology of crashing a brand new Malibu with all its structural integrity intact into what is most likely a rusty Bel Air. From the video it looks as if the Bel Air might be lacking its engine (just like the Lincoln that got crushed in "Goldfinger"). Maybe the question that should be asked is wouldn't it have been fairer to crash into each other two 50-year-old cars; this Bel Air with a Volvo perhaps, and see how they faired against each other?
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What irks me is the fact that it's the IIHS that seems to take credit for the advances in automotive safety over the last half century, more than the engineers at the world's vehicle manufacturers. For those of you baby boomers old enough to remember what passed as child safety booster seats 50 years ago (the kind of infant car seats that draped over the front seat back or this early attempt at a convertible stroller/car seat), when seat belts were an option, or vomit-inducing rear-facing third seats that sucked in exhaust, we all know that today's cars are safer for a variety of reasons. We have improved roads, active and passive restraints, energy absorbing steering columns, a multitude of airbags, better tires and brakes, and crumple zones just to mention a few of the innovations that we all benefit from. The IIHS, an insurance industry lobbying group, is the same organization that looks for any justification to raise our insurance rates by minimizing their risk and laying the blame elsewhere. Then as now, if you're not driving something like a high-tech 2010 Volvo S80 AWD V8 like I did last month with its virtual smorgasbord of accident avoiding technologies, the best way to avoid an accident is to drive defensively, and especially don't tailgate. Of course here in California, with what passes for the rudest and most aggressive drivers in the nation, that's easier said than done.
I suggest taking a look at the comments posted over at thetruthaboutcars.com, both on the video as well as their analysis of the motives of the IIHS in promoting this stunt.
(Just want you to know that I search all over Google images, Flicker, and PhotoBucket hoping to find a photograph or an ad for a fifties era child seat and came up totally empty. Can any one help provide a suitable image, from a magazine ad, a period photo, or even a snapshot of you strapped into a catapult-like child car booster seat?)
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