Quote:
Originally Posted by bambbrose
What is ridiculous about it? Almost all new cars have them, and I'm sure even economy cars will have them within a few years.
They prevent your femur from breaking on the steering column or dash by keeping the legs in a good position away from harm.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by davesrave
I'm also curious what you mean. Having never "put my knees through the dashboard" I don't understand what you're saying. Watching a few NHTSA crash videos, it seems like a good idea. Please elaborate.
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Several years back I was riding shotgun when my GF at the time rear-ended an elderly couple at ~50 mph vs. ~20 mph. I slid forward a bit in the seat and my knees hit the dash, hard. I left a pair of fist-sized holes in the plastic. I had a purple bruise on each knee and a few scratches and that was it. There were no broken bones, hell I didn't even take an aspirin.
So the idea of adding extra airbags just to prevent that from happening is, to me, laughable. Even more so considering that when I drive my car, my knees are already less than half an inch from the dash and the steering column is between my knees. There is no way an airbag could protect my knees in my car, and there is nothing down there that they need to be protected from. It's just molded plastic with several inches of air behind it. To think that people need to be coddled to such an extent simply boggles my mind.
And as for breaking femurs, if I was in an accident where my legs were subjected to enough force to break a femur I would count myself very lucky to come out of it with
just a broken leg. Femurs are tough SOBs, and any crash serious enough to break one could easily be fatal.