Where is the safest seat in a car?
Where is the safest seat in a car?
By Ané Theron
You just have to open a newspaper or turn on the radio to be reminded of how dangerous our roads are. But have you ever wondered where the safest place is in your average five-seater car is?
No surprises here: In newer cars fitted with multiple airbags, the driver and front passenger are in the best spots since all the assistance systems favour them. But did you know that the safest spot to sit in the car also depends on your age?
Children, age, and seat location
Researchers who have been studying the extent of injuries due to road accidents on different age groups, are all in agreement that children under the age of eight years were the safest in the back seat, when they were safely strapped into their car seats. The seat should be rear-facing, at least until they're two years old. Between the ages of nine and twelve, the risk became slightly larger. This is partly due to the fact that not all ten-year-olds are still keen on riding in car seats or on booster seats, and the seatbelt would then fit them ineffectively because of their height.
In recent studies that involved all age groups and older cars, the middle back seat proved to be the safest, but only if it had a three-point seatbelt.
Dietrich Jehle, M.D., and associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Buffalo, explains:
"The middle seat is safer because people who sit in the middle have more elbow room in case of impact to either side of the car, and during rollover crashes there is potentially less rotational force exerted on the middle seat passenger than on those in the window seats,” he says.
Older people in newer cars
When the study singled out older people (55 and older) in cars that were newer, the back seat proved to be less safe than the front; and not because of any reason other than the fact that the front seat keeps getting safer as technology advances. Studies show that seat belts are still the most important risk factor, and that people who refrain from strapping themselves in are eight times more likely to be seriously injured. As for those people in the back, those who buckle up are generally two to three times more likely to survive a crash.
If that's not a great reason to put on your safety belt, we don't know what is.
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