Car crash survival

[jedimistress]

Might seem a morbid question. But many car crash injuries are causewd by the person hitting the steering weel. Causing organ damage, spleen to rupture, internal damage etc.

Does this mean that as a small person with short arms I am more likely to hit the steering wheel with more force than someone positioned further away with long arms?

Thanks. I do a lot of driving these days. I have a lot of time to think about these things.

[Kerplunk]

You could look here

[Hermia]

Apparantly short people are also more likely to be killed by airbags because they sit too near the steering wheel. I'm short and I took a friend who is a mechanic and knows lots about car safety with me when I was looking for a car (in the hope that it would stop me getting ripped off by nasty salesmen). It was a nightmare because I couldn't reach the pedals in half of the cars and was sitting too near the wheel in the rest. My mate was freaking out about the safety aspect, but when the pulled the seat back to a safe distance I couldn't reach the pedals!

I wish they would design a car specially for us little ladies (and little men!) where the pedals, steering wheel, seatbelt and clutch etc were in just the right place.

[Cockney_si]

Most accidents in the 70's were like this but since airbags and seat belt pre-tensioners this has dropped off a bit.

You could try the Euroncap safety site

http://www.euroncap.com/

this may be able to tell you how safe your car is in a crash.

[aka pixi]

i agree hermia, i am not quite 5 feet tall and although i havent driven for ages when i did i needed two cushions to sit on and one behind the small of my back,otherwise not only could i not reach the pedals but i couldnt see where i was going either

[qapmoc]

Hi all, You should be used to it by now, I mean if you are short, tall, left handed, have big feet, etc.... nobody is interested in selling to you because you are such a small (not a pun!) proportion of their total sales and it is not worth the effort to specialise equipment for non-standard people.

Come back in 50 years when genetic engineering and cloning is normal and I suppose the question won't even arise because everybody will be within the ''standard'' size/type/ability range