Previously, we’ve looked at the issue of where you should sit in a plane to survive a crash. We’ve also spoken in another blog about the fact that, in most cities, fire engines can’t reach higher than the 6th floor with their ladders. Today we thought we’d talked about the relevance of where you sit in a motor vehicle to increase your probability of surviving a car crash.

These days, people in western societies are covering more distances regularly by road – and have more distracting personal devices – than was the case a decade ago. While safety technologies like airbags and-the-like have improved over the same period, there’s only so much that vehicle manufacturers can do to offset driver behaviour.

Urban myth has it that sitting in the back of a vehicle is safer than sitting in the front, especially for passengers in the ‘death seat’ (which is what the spot next to the driver used to be called).

But that thinking is out of date due to advances in car safety: from air bags to crumple zones amongst others design characteristics that absorb the force of impacts during a crash. The chances of surviving any serious car crash vary widely, depending on the nature of the collision, speed and type of vehicles involved. But for people seated in the front, those odds have improved significantly over the last two decades.

Now think of all those crash test dummies in the videos you see from time to time … How many of them show back seat passengers? Not many. And this is indicative of the fact that, while improvements to front seat safety has gone gangbusters in recent years, less emphasis has been placed on the seats in the back. Given that 88% of passengers sit in the front (according to the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety), market forces have probably indicated that back seat safety isn’t worth the same investment. If that’s the case, however, it’s a pretty hardnosed attitude by the motor industry when you consider that the people who are sitting up the back are probably kids who have the least control over their personal safety of anyone in the vehicle.

Reaction Time

While the techno-gismos are doing a lot to improve injury rates from motor vehicle crashes, individual reaction time still makes a difference. And gender may play a role too. For example, a study by the US National Centre for Biotechnology Information found that males showed stronger and quicker reaction abilities than women. However, according to the Australian Insurer Budget Direct males made up 72% of all road fatalities in Australia from 2013-2017, and this wasn’t because the driver was female. Factors such as alcohol consumption and other risky behaviour also play their part - and we all know that young blokes in cars can be a danger to themselves and everyone around them. But it’s not the ‘P’ plated blokes that are the real issue. Men aged 25 to 34 are 34% more likely to be involved in a car accident than other drivers.

Other studies indicate that – when faced with a sudden emergency – the outcome may turn more on chance and circumstance than on the individual performance abilities of the driver and vehicle.

For example, when it comes to accidents involving pedestrians, drivers generally react more quickly to someone coming into the vehicle’s path from the kerb-side of the road than if the person approaches from the driver’s side. During their research into autonomous vehicles, Uber Technologies released a report which shows that, if faced with a choice of hitting one pedestrian and avoiding another, a driver will swerve towards the person on the sidewalk thinking that this individual has slightly more time to get out of the way than the guy or gal on the road.

Airbags are not just for the driver these days. Your choice of car affects your survivability rate.

Passengers’ Place.

As a passenger in a car, some seats are safer than others. ‘Back in the day’ it was generally thought that the safest place for a passenger in a car was directly behind the driver. Outside of the pedestrian scenarios outlined above, a driver will instinctively swerve to protect themselves if a crash is imminent. So, in most cases, the passenger side of the vehicle will be hitting something first.

But the design and technical specifications of modern vehicles means that sitting behind the driver may no longer be the safest spot. And, perhaps it never was. Based on a major study by the University of Buffalo, it looks like age is more relevant to determining where you should plonk your butt when you hop into a vehicle. Specifically, (assuming you are wearing a seatbelt) the safest spot is:

· In newer model cars:

o For under 8 YO: anywhere on the rear seat is definitely the safest place to be.

o For ages 9-12 YO: same same - the rear seat is a slightly safer place to be.

o From ages 13 to 54: researchers found no difference in risk of fatality in the rear seats versus the front seats.

o For people over 55 YO: the front passenger seat is the safest.

· In older model cars: The research showed that the overall safest spot in the car seemed to be the middle back seat.

In a later blog we’ll talk about survivability of car crashes. Meanwhile, next time you hop in the car for the school run, consider what you’re doing to do the right thing while you’re behind the wheel.

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