Let’s take a moment away from our usual fare to honor my friend and mentor, Ralph Nader, for the incredible improvements made in auto safety since he jump started the campaign to save lives with his seminal book, Unsafe at Any Speed. Ralph isn’t solely responsible for these improvements, of course. But I think it is fair to say that without him, they would not have come nearly so fast, nor would the political and public focus on the issue been as white hot. Love him or hate him, if you survived a serious auto accident in the last few decades, it could well be because Ralph Nader cared enough to take on General Motors.
I was saved from going through a windshield in 1969 when my friend hit a telephone pole—because I had messed with his radio and it distracted his attention, but there were reasons! Thank goodness, I had a lap seat belt on. I remember how it felt when the belt stopped my forward trajectory. My head hit the padded dash and had a slight cut. Had the same accident happened before seat belts, I would have been hospital bound.
You think I exaggerate? Check out this video of a crash between a heavier 1959 Chevy and a 2009 Chevy of about the same size.
We now return to our regularly scheduled program.
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