My Mom was a Court Reporter. Back in the late 60s she heard a tragic but interesting wrongful death lawsuit.
The scenario was that a person was using a payphone in a curbside phone booth at a corner gas station. A woman in a passing station wagon reached back to swat the unbelted kids in the back seat. She was steering with her knee as she did so, and inadvertantly swerved & drove through the phonebooth at ~35 mph, killing the caller from behind. One of the kids was pretty badly injured in the ensuing crash.
The old days were more dangerous than we think.