The other day I was driving about 55 mph (the speed limit) on a two-lane road when some moron in an SUV made a left turn RIGHT in front of me. I had to literally stand on the brakes; missed the moron with inches to spare thankfully. (I couldn’t go to the left because there was a vehicle right behind the turning SUV.)
My passenger leaned forward and braced himself with his arms against the dash while simultaneously yelling SHIIIIIT!1!!!1!
The swearing I can understand, but it occured to me that leaning forward and putting one’s hands on the dashboard would not be the best position to be in if we’d made head-on impact. Especially if the airbag goes off. Wouldn’t that put someone in full-frontal contact with an exploding airbag, plus risk broken or dislocated arms? I’ve never been in the presence of an airbag going off so I don’t know what it’s like.
So - were I a passenger and there might be a sudden impact, are there ways to minimize injury? I’m thinking cross arms across body and turn sideways, maybe.
If I think a crash is impending I tend to simultaneously grab onto something and then, when my brain catches up, try to go limp. I doubt either thing would help in a crash…my only ‘accident’ <a slow-motion rollover with no damage whatsoever> apparantly buried itself so deep into my subconscious that I never had any recollection of that minute or so, not even immediately after it happened. So…yeah.
I think the arms on the dashboard are the normal reaction to the driver slamming on the breaks, if for no other reason than to prevent your face from meeting the dashboard. As to the turning sideways, I hear it’s much worse for your brain if an impact comes from the sides, as the hemispheres bounce against each other.
My very best passenger…in a situation where it really looked like I was going to rear-end the guy ahead of me…who had come to an emergency stop on the freeway…simply closed her eyes and waited, silently, for it to happen.
(Whew! It didn’t! There was just space enough for me to slide between two cars and avoid the collision. Holy Hannah…)
The seat belt ought to hold my body in place better than anything I could do with my arms, so I’d try* to clasp my hands behind my head so my right arm cushions my head from bouncing off of the side window if the car rolls.
*I’m sure IRL I’d just clench every muscle in terror and close my eyes.
The only crash I have been in as a passenger was getting clipped by an oncoming car during a left turn. I remember looking up during the turn, seeing the oncoming car (which by all rights should have been coming to a stop due to the stopped traffic in front of him) and saying very calmly to the driver “He’s going to hit us” which apparently was enough to spur the driver to accelerate sharply so the car only clipped the rear corner of our car instead of broadsiding us. It still spun us 180 degrees. When we came to a standstill the driver asked me if I was ok and I answered “yup.” He later remarked that I was the best passenger to have in a crash because I didn’t freak out during or after.
I’ll vote for my instincts in the face of impending blunt force trauma: to go kind of limp where I sit. It’s served me well. I’m always the one in the car that doesn’t even get whiplash (I’ve been in about 6 car accidents, none of them very serious). I am also very good at falling down - I stay relaxed and ‘tuck and roll’, so I never get hurt.
I always wear the seat belt. If the driver’s standing on the brakes, the belt locks and there’s no way I would be able to put my hands on the dash. I’m also most likely to be paying just as much attention to the impending impact as the driver, while also standing on the invisible brakes in my foot well. Probably muttering shit, shit, shit along the way.
My wife regularly braces herself on the dash whenever the traffic in front of us slows, despite the facts that:
I know traffic has slowed and am reacting appropriately, rather than slowing to a near stop 200 yards behind the last car as it appears she thinks I should do, and
I’ve suggested repeatedly that bracing on the dash is probably not a good idea if we ever DO crash, and
I’ve mentioned that gasping and acting like I’m driving like a maniac when I am, in fact, driving like a competent, completely non-aggressive or risk-taking, experienced driver, is not very helpful and sometimes makes me freak out thinking there’s some other danger I’ve not noticed yet, instead of just some gradually slowing traffic 10 car lengths ahead.
I didn’t even realize my husband had a SDMB account.
At least I can say that I’m trying to get better. I’ve tried to tell my husband that I’m offering helpful suggestions like “The car ahead of us is stopping”, but apparently he has his own methods of determining things like that.
IIRC, relaxing is the best thing you can do if you can; I understand that’s part of the reason why drunks have a reputation for coming out unscathed from the wrecks they cause; they don’t tense up, and so flex with the impact*. And taking off your glasses and closing your eyes is also a good idea I think; not only can airbags ram the glasses into your face, they can scape your eyes by expanding faster than you can blink.
*On the other hand, I understand that they are also more prone to bleed out since their blood vessels are relaxed too (“vasodilation”); so they are less prone to injury, but more prone to death.
Last summer I was a passenger in a car when my driving friend had a brain fart and didn’t notice a car had stopped to turn in front of us. I said something like “brake, brake!” and she did, but somehow also swerved and ended up in the ditch. We had to get towed out.
No damage, nobody hurt, and I really don’t remember whether I braced myself, tried to relax, or what. Never thought about the glasses thing. I don’t wear them for driving, unless it’s light - then I usually wear sunglasses.
I used to hang around with a bunch of folks who were learning hypnosis/self hypnosis from a former stage hypnotist. One of the guys rode a motorbike and had an accident when a car shot out of a driveway. He hit the car and shot across the bonnet and onto the road. He suffered very minor injuries and insisted it was because he had given himself a post hypnotic suggestion that if he was ever in an accident he would become like a rag doll. He said he just hit the road and rolled for a bit.
Horse riders tell me that every rider needs to know how to fall to minimize the risk of injury and relaxing is a big part of it.
