Quote:
Originally Posted by JBohannon
I believe the most dangerous time for American automobiles would be the late 50's and early 60's. These cars had a lot of power and speed and the last thing on the mfr's mind was safety. It is hard to believe now but we did not even have seat belts. The dashes and instruments in these cars could be extremly dangerous to passengers. Anybody agree or disagree.
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Sorry I have to disagree with "the last thing on the mfg's mind was safety" part of your statement. If you study Ford history or lived in the mid to late 50's you will know of Ford's 1956 Safety advertising campaign touting their padded dashboards, dished steering wheel, padded visors, seat belts, etc. The sad thing was that safety did NOT sale. In fact the campaign backfired on Ford as the public felt like Fords must be unsafe cars since they were pushing safety items. I think the other car companies learned from Fords misjudgement of the buying public and did not make a fuss over safety.
Sure cars of the 50's and 60's were relatively "unsafe" with their big engines, solid steel construction, drum brakes, etc but todays cars are just as "unsafe", if not more so, with their moron distracted drivers with all of the gadgets such as GPS, cell phones, CD players, etc. I think I had better odds driving in the 50's and 60's than in todays traffic.