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Old 02-19-2012, 06:49 PM   #62
ZDan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fatoni View Post
this whole last page has been about how i dont have any data. were talking about peoples lives here so we cant exactly perform prospective trials. all we have is what has already happened but we cant isolate any variables in a world we cant control.
Actually, there should be enough Miatas with and without roll bars that have been in accidents. I wonder if anyone has tried to assign risk with vs. risk without, that could be useful info...

Quote:
i will say that at least 95% of people will have their head above the line intersecting the rollbar and top of the cowl and even more once forced away from the seat. a rollbar will only protect things under that line in the event of a rollover
I dont think you can categorically say that. There's no magic line of absolute protection vs. no protection whatsoever. Maintaining more survival space is generally going to improve safety in a rollover whether your head is above a line or not, again the only question (to me anyway) is how that plays against the added risk of whacking your head on the roll bar in more types of crashes.

For most modern non-convertibles, I would bet that the added risk of the roll bar for all types of accidents probably does outweigh any reduction in risk in rollover accidents only. For convertibles, I dunno...
In any case, we're often forced to run roll bars by track and/or sanctioning body rules (this is the case with my cars).
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