Thought this was mentioning again as everyone seems so concerned about safety in cars these days.
Just seen a repeat of a Fifth Gear programme which involved testing for the damage caused by flying luggage etc. in an accident.
In the first test some books and a laptop were left on the parcel shelf, a brief case on the rear seats and shooping on the floor. The shopping and briefcase contents were spilled but the books and laptop smashed the windscreen. They could easily have caused serious head injuries to the driver and/or front passenger.
The second test involved a tool box left in the boot. On impact, this smashed through the rear seats scattering tools etc. everywhere like deadly shrapnel - very nasty.
The third test involved a load of flat pack stacked (as most of us have probably done) on top of the seats from front to back of the car. The result of the impact was horrific - the sheets of mdf sliced into the front seats and the metal sink would probably have decapitated anyone it hit!
If all this sounds overstated I should say that the test simulated an impact at only 30mph which is apparently enough to create a force of 30g!
The conclusions (from memory):
- Never keep hard/ heavy/sharp items on the parcel shelf.
- keep loose items in the rear footwell
- use rear seatbelts to help secure the rear seats from being forced apart by items in the boot.
- Secure all items properly and don't be tempted to carry large items like sheets of MDF, lengths of timber etc. inside the car.
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I'm very wary of this, having seen the results of a van driver decapitated by a single wooden sheet when he hit a tram at city driving speeds.
As a result, I never put anything on a parcel shelf, and anything like tools that I lug around permanently is kept to a minimum and lives in the spare tyre well. The golf umbrella is also strapped down in the boot, in both my V70 and SWMBO's 306 Sedan, and would never be considered a candidate for the parcel shelf in the latter.
In Brussels, or Tervuren to be exact, I saw the result of a lorry carrying one foot diameter concrete drainage pipes when it T-boned another truck at a cross roads. The whole cab above the level of the trailer behind was ripped off, driver inside. Truly stomach wrenching. Again, this was at quite low speed.
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I was following a car with a large golfing umbrella loose on the parcel shelf this morning and was thinking about the hidden danger should that umbrella turn into a spear in the event of a crash.
Cheers, SS
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Mate of mine a few years ago just chucked some rear speakers into the holes already cut into the rear parcel shelf. Didn't fix them in with screws or put grills on top. He was involved in an accident (not his fault) that ended up turning his car upsidedown. One of the speakers shot out of the shelf like a frisby and nearly scalped him. He would have escaped injury had it not been for one of the 4" speakers embedding itself into the back of his head.
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Don't know how good it is, but my A4 Avant has a luggage net which pulls out from the top of the back seat and hooks into the roof. I don't know if it's meaty enough to stop the contents of the rear entering the front in an accident, but after that Top Gear programme I always use it.
Funny, I have never, ever seen it or a similar thing (except dog guards)used by anybody else.
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Dave Early, who played drums with Van Morrison, Mary Black and Sade was killed by his own drum set in a car crash in Ireland.
I worked with his brother Bill, and was with him when he got the news.
He said "It's what he would have wanted"
I think I tried to break my own finger in an attempt to stop myself laughing out loud.
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My Peugeot Partner Combi has exactly the same thing. It even goes behind the front seats when the back seats are folded. It was a £50 option and well worth it in my opinion.
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It's probably quite a good argument for three-box saloons, i.e. fixed rear seats and a closed boot. I like estates and hatches for their practicality, but almost nobody loading them considers the physics of an accident.
Riding home yesterday, I followed an idiot in an XR3 (wearing a baseball cap, inevitably) with a toddler roaming free on the back seat...
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The only thing I've got on my parcel shelf is a little Bagpuss... for an eighties child that would be a hell of a way to go. ;)
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Personally I have always thought that any items "loose" in the car would become missiles in a crash so have always ensured that such items are restrained as best as possible. Didn't take looking at the 5th Gear programme to bring this to my attention. Maybe it should be included in Highway Code and as part of driving lessons?
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Agree with you volvoman, that these things are often neglected.
I can remember, a few years ago, seeing similar tests being done. A BL Princess (i think) was loaded to the hilt with suitcases and 5 passengers (dummys of course) before being pounded into a concrete block at 30mph. The luggage pushed the rear seats forwards, crushing the rear seat passangers in to the front seats, which in turn collapsed.
Although the test was done over 20 years ago, it still could happen today.
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