“(Preston) Tucker spoke with airline stewardesses and even an airline executive, who told him, ‘If we put a parachute under each seat, this would imply that an element of danger existed and would so terrify the passengers that they would file out of the airplane and seek the closest railroad terminal in an exodus that would look like the evacuation of Dunkirk.’ According to Egan and Tremulis, Tucker ultimately agreed with his marketing department that seat belts would imply that the car was unsafe. The Tucker ’48 sedan would not have them. Later, Tremulis said that Tucker had been in favor of seat belts but decided against them because ‘it was very unpopular at that time to talk about seat belts.'”
— Steve Lehto (2016)
RE:SOURCES
- Lehto, Steve; 2016. Preston Tucker and His Battle to Build the Car of Tomorrow. Chicago Review Press: p. 88.
Also see ‘Road & Track magazine’s 1972 Nader attack was disingenuous propaganda’
A lot of the resistance to wearing seatbelts once they were standard equipment, was based on the same thinking. By wearing them the driver was consciously acknowledging the fact that being involved in a collision was an actual possibility. Of course, by wearing them the driver was improving his odds for survival. This acceptance of hazardous exposure comes to play with motorcyclists. I rode a motorcycle extensively for thirty years. I knew that bad things could happen. I’d gone down a few times, luckily without major injury. I was willing to accept that risk. So driving a vintage car doesn’t really frighten me,though I do insist on lap belts at a minimum. Many modern drivers don’t want to drive or ride in a car that lacks a cocoon of air bags,abs,or computer active braking systems. I suppose that members of my group are going to go extinct over time.
Despite all the improvements to vehicle design as far as safety is concerned, an idiot driver can still defeat every system that has been incorporated into their car/truck/SUV/X-over. You can’t deny the laws of physics.
Indeed. In a photo essay about highway memorials I included a quote from a commentator at another automotive website: “It’s amazing how one can go from being very alive to being very dead in the bat of an eyelash. It’s probably best not to dwell on it, but ignoring the risks altogether can lead to poor decision making. The human body was not meant to travel more than a few miles per hour; we were engineered accordingly, and traveling any speed much above that is a crapshoot.”
I wholeheartedly agree. Today’s drivers are often distracted and aggressive, driving too fast and too close and making last minute, split second lane changes, often without signaling. I’m considering a disk brake upgrade on my 1964 Studebaker Daytona convertible as my drum brakes just won’t stop the car fast enough given today’s traffic flows.