Does a car safety rating really matter in the scheme of things when real-world crashes, at speed limits, are considered?

[itsclearlynicholas]

I love wearing my seatbelt and it's the law in my country and I love a car with airbags and the latest cars with the latest safety features. Now, I just wanna ask a thorny question here: whether an older car or a newer car has a better rating in crash tests or not, they say studies or whatever internet says that cars travelling at 50 miles or 75 miles or 80 Kilometers or 100 Kilometers or 110 Kilometers (speed limits varying by roads) - if a collision based on the speed limit the higher the speed limit the higher supposedly the likelihood of a non-survivable crash, then does it really matter if a person drives an older car or a newer car? Does it really matter then, that a car with no airbags versus a car with airbags, or stability control or no stability control, seat belts and wearing them are a must and in insist on wearing seat belts and obeying the speed limits. My question is, are all cars created equal in that, at speed limits on highways or freeways, death is inevitable regardless of newer car or old car simply because of science or physics or forces or whatever on impacts, surely?

Ultimately, new car or old car, eventually crashes at certain speed limits are virtually impossible to survive

No, newer cars could be survivable even at those freeway speed limits or highway speed limits or ordinary main road speed limits

Hmmm, food for thought, maybe then newer cars and older cars are in fact the same outcome, even if the latest safety gadgets or the newest car on the road

I'm not sure, just like you, it's hard to say whether it matters in the scheme of things (yes always wear a seatbelt and always obey the road laws)

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I think people are missing my argument of what I'm asking 😆

[Fireguy17]

I have spent over half of my life in fire and EMS.
Now I have seen some horrific accidents, and you go up to the car which is just destroyed and there is no one in there.
I'll ask the officer where are the people from the car?
he will point them out standing off to the side using thier phones.
Older cars would hold up better, but the people would not fare very well.
Today's cars have crumple zones, but the passenger compartment holds up to keep them safe. Air bags, seat belt tensioners, collapsable steering shafts, everything is designed to help people survive.
Everything that happens is getting rid of energy.
Bending metal, parts flying off, even the sound are all ways that the energy of a crash is dissipating.
I've seen people that have been killed at 25mph, and some will survive crashes at 100.

[itsclearlynicholas]

And that last part fireguy17 is my question: why the discrepancy and have you seen older cars survive a passenger/driver both better than say a newer car fresh off the line? Realising every crash is unique, different impact, different angle, etc

[Fireguy17]

on average any car that has the better safety features that have been developed over the years are so much safer than say cars from the 50s up to the late 70s to early 80s.
Now the car is expendable, not the people.
The vehicles that score the best on the crash tests are safer than those that do not get a 5 star rating.
It costs money to develop those things, for a while Subaru had a boron steel bar in the B pillar, and 23 layers of metal there as well.
With the older "jaws of life" they simply laced the power needed to be able to cut through all of that, so you made pie cuts in the roof to bypass all of that.
Today's cutters are much more powerful, even the battery ones cut better than the gas powered ones of years ago.
I'm not saying that people do not die in accidents, every situation is different, but I have seen more and more people walk away from way I would have considered to be a fatal accident based on the damage of the vehicle (s) involved.
We had one a month or so ago, a guy rearended a semi-trailer at a high speed.
It hit the truck so hard, that the intake manifold was no longer on the engine of his pickup.
He survived that, but he did have to be transported.
His truck was just a mess.

[NathanDavis]

wear your seatbelt... any

https://www.youtube.com/embed/L_uXZEkhlZU

[itsclearlynicholas]

I've seen similar and I always do, it's the law here in my country and I do yes. That said, I was referring to say driving a 1990s hatchback with seatbelt, compared to a 2020s hatchback with seatbelt, even if the 2020s is newer, fancier, the same outcome surely is unsurvivable for any human who has a crash at normal high way speed limits? Forces, science. Whether the car is new with a seatbelt or old with a seatbelt. Apples oranges. Tomatoes tomatos

[itsclearlynicholas]

Does anyone get understand what I'm trying to articulate lol 🧐

[NathanDavis]

regulations are way more strict today... than they were 30 years ago, you see

30 years ago, the biggest truck was a lot lighter than the biggest and heavier trucks built today

any code from 2020 is calibrated to the "dangers" of today, the days we're all currently living on

[AngryCarl]

He got off easy. I expected him to fly!

[msc545]

You reduce overall risk when you drive a car that has modern safety features and you use them and drive safely at legal speeds.

You can still die or be badly injured in a crash, but the odds of that happening are lower. You should do everything you can to lower those odds, including buying and driving a newer car.

[DryGermanGuy]

Of course it does, as have the rising survivability rates have shown over the decades of safety development. Example: In the early decades auf automobiles drivers were killed by getting impaled by their steering column. Rule of thumb, don’t buy a Chinese or Russian car.

https://youtu.be/_ULm6QrC428?si=69TmCg9_SOLjhK9D

[itsclearlynicholas]

Thats old footage of older Chinese cars and anyhow sir, my point I was making was regardless of a cars safety or design, some crashes are inevitable where serviceable chances are slim? Like any car travelling at ordinary highway speeds on a highway or freeway and has a collision with another car, it's unlikely surely? Even if you had 0 airbags or 5 airbags

[itsclearlynicholas]

And if they did survive, potential amputee or vegetable

[itsclearlynicholas]

Surely? 🧐

[AngryCarl]

@DryGermanGuy Brilliance? BS.