Comments on: DON’T RIDE WITH DEATH (Dec, 1952)

By: Adrian

Adrian — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:08:06 +0000

As shown in the cartoon example above, a lap belt would not have prevented you becoming very close friends with the steering wheel.

An Aeroplane lap strap would only have helped in preventing a passenger from being jettisoned from the vehicle. It was ‘Lap and Diagonal’ belts that introduced a reduction in injuries and fatalities.

By: Erika

Erika — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 05:22:12 +0000

no seatbelts on our ’73 (I think) Hillman Imp.

mind you, it had the engine of a sewing machine, so perhaps none were necessary…

By: Neil Russell

Neil Russell — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:25:12 +0000

My dad always bought seatbelts for our cars too, it was one of the deciding factors in buying a 1962 Rambler that seatbelts came standard in it.
From the stories I have heard and read about the auto industry in the 1950s the theory held that seatbelts implied that the car wasn’t safe.

By: Orv

Orv — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:20:32 +0000

Safety belts on airplanes aren’t just there in the unlikely event of a crash. They’re also there to keep you in your seat in severe turbulence, so you don’t bounce around and hit your head on things.

By: Eli

Eli — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:10:16 +0000

I hadn’t realized that seatbelts as standard equipment are a relatively recent development. This sheds some light on the genre of car accident songs (“Tell Laura I Love Her”, “Leader of the Pack”, etc.) of the ’50s/’60s.

By: Mike Brown

Mike Brown — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 15:44:45 +0000

Airplane seat belts weren’t just an upgrade of car seat belts – they were the only seat belts any consumer would ever have seen in 1952. Cars didn’t have seat belts at all as a general rule until the mid-1960′s – they weren’t even an option in American cars until years after this ad ran (Ford and Chrysler only began offering them in some models in 1956, and they weren’t at all popular). My father put aftermarket belts like those in the ad into our ’61 Ford and bought belts for our ’65 Chevy when they became available as a factory option. It wasn’t uvtil the late 60′s that they were Federally required.

By: Blurgle

Blurgle — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 11:40:49 +0000

The truth is that the higher up and faster you go, the less they can do to protect you.

That is also why everyone is allowed to roller-skate but only pilots with years of training and experience can fly a passenger jet: prevention is the only thing they can do.

By: fluffy

fluffy — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:59:35 +0000

Interesting. Some comic (I think Jerry Seinfeld, but it may have been someone else) has a standard bit about how the higher up and more dangerous you go, the less protection you have, with airplanes being at one ridiculous extreme and roller skates (with the full body protection) being at the other, with a car in the middle. So it’s interesting that originally, airplane seat belts were an upgrade from the car’s.