There are a lot of factors to consider when it comes to safety while out on the roads, but it’s possibly one of the most mundane aspects of a car journey that can make the biggest difference in an accident.
While wearing a seatbelt goes without saying, exactly how and where you sit in a car can have a massive impact on your safety if you’re involved in a car accident.
“Many cars nowadays are made with such advanced safety features, but how we sit in a car is often our biggest safety precaution,” said Barend Smit, Marketing Director at MotorHappy.
Subsequently, there are a few seating habits you must avoid whenever possible to ensure you remain as safe as possible should the unforeseen happen.
Safety first
One example of a bad sitting practice is for the person in the front passenger seat to leave his or her feet up on the dashboard.
This changes the way the seatbelt rests on your body and, in the event of an accident, your upper body could flip over the belt and cause severe injury to your neck and abdomen.
If the airbags are deployed, the force of the bags could push your knees into your face which could cause significant damage to your legs, torso, and head, given that a typical airbag inflates at a speed of about 320km/h.
Similarly, Smit strongly advises against sitting with the front passenger seat reclined while the car is in motion, as once again this means that the seatbelt is not fitted across your body in the way it is intended to.
If you are lying down in the seat when the accident occurs, the seatbelt will likely be in a position where the force of the impact is applied to your neck and abdomen, which could damage your neck and even your internal organs.
Furthermore, it’s important to note that the third row of seats in a seven or eight-seater vehicle is usually not as safe as the other two rows.
This is because the third row is located at the very rear of the vehicle, meaning there is less of a crumple zone and that passengers in those seats are more likely to be injured in the event of a rear-end collision.
Looking at the middle row, there is often a bit of confusion as to whether the middle seat is in fact safer or more dangerous than the two side chairs, given that there is no seat in front of the middle position to offer any protection from an impact.
For infants aged zero to three years, however, the middle seat is in fact the safest place to install your child’s car seat, as it is in the very centre of the car and therefore the furthest place from any point of impact.
It is also located away from any airbags installed in the front or side of the car – an important aspect to take into consideration given that many modern cars can also have curtain airbags in the side doors or even in the back of the front seats.
It’s also recommended that parents purchase a rear-facing child seat, as the vast majority of crashes involve a head-on collision.
Finally, it is advised that occupants do not allow anyone or anything to sit in their lap, be it another person or even a pet.
The individual sitting on top of someone else’s lap would be much closer to the airbag when it deploys, and the impact could be so violent that it could potentially kill them, and it’s also possible that the person sitting in the chair would be severely hurt by the force of the object slamming into them.
“Children should always be safely secured in the back seat, with the correct child’s seat for their weight and height,” said Smit.
“Pets are also safest if they’re wearing a harness that is buckled to the seatbelt or in a secured carrier.”
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