What’s the safest seat in the car?

Inside the car, we have sought to continuously improve the safety of passengers in the event of an accident, with systems such as airbags, headrest shapes, seat belts and other technologies that are still being researched and integrated.

One thing that continues to leave doubt within drivers is whether any seat is safer than another, not only in private cars, but also in buses, this in the event of an accident and the position in the vehicle determines the severity of injuries.

Although this has also been improved with the design of the new models, accident tests by different expert institutes continue to show that depending on the seat, there will be greater safety in a collision.

Most indicate that the middle rear seat is the furthest away from a front or side impact, because unlike front passengers there is no dashboard where they can suffer a blow, as well as on the sides where the first impact is received.

For this reason, safety experts recommend that the rear is where children travel, protected by special seats that can be placed in the back seat and well placed thanks to systems such as Isofix three-point anchorage and which is increasingly common in vehicles.

Also, they should be placed in the right rear seat or behind the co-pilot and in reverse whenever possible, this more in cases where there is no anchorage system for special seats, and preferably with children under four years to avoid neck and chest injuries in case of a frontal crash.

This area of the car only represents a greater risk when it is a very old model, where as security only had abdominal belts with two anchorages instead of three and do not have elements such as headrests, so that in an accident there is a greater likelihood of displacement as a cervical whip causing serious injuries.

Depending on the type of accident, we speak of the second safest seat, with the one located behind the co-pilot being the best in the case of frontal collisions, since in a side impact it is one of the most affected. Others point out that the driver’s seat and the left rear seat are also among the safest in the event of an impact.

How to keep the driver’s seat safe

In order to have more security in the driver’s seat, some factors must be taken into account such as the distance to the steering wheel, the height of the seat or the placement of the seat belt, since a bad disposition of some of these attachments not only neutralizes their advantages in security, but also can turn them into a danger element and increase the damages.

With regard to the distance from the seat, it must be such that the driver can press the pedals fully while keeping his leg slightly bent, but close enough to be able to operate the pedals without having to move his body forward.

The height of the seat should be such that it provides a full view of the road, leaving an average of 8 cm between the head and the roof, so that in the event of a side impact the head does not hit the top of the car.

In the case of the backrest, it has to be placed allowing the driver’s inclination to be as perpendicular as possible with a distance of at least 25 centimeters to the steering wheel. One way to check this is to stick your back to the backrest and extend your arm by placing your wrists on top of the steering wheel. The headrest should also be adjusted and positioned to protect the head at eye level.

Which are the most unsafe seats?

The seat with the highest risk inside the passenger compartment is the co-driver’s seat. In the case of collisions, this is due to the instinct of drivers to “swerve” and turn the steering wheel, so that the entire impact is usually received by the person in the passenger seat.

In second place is the driver’s seat, due to its proximity to other objects such as the steering wheel and the dashboard that can impact against the chest or depending on the height of the driver result in blows to the head.

The third position is the seat behind the driver, due to factors such as reduced visibility behind the driver, higher probability of injury from a side impact collision, and more remote access to the street in case of trying to escape from the car because it is more likely to be on the right side of the vehicle in a rollover.

The safest seat on the bus?

When traveling on the bus, there are also seats that provide greater safety, with the center seats being the safest because they are not attached to the windows, as glass is one of the most dangerous objects when a bus accident occurs. While those at the ends of both the front and rear sides are more exposed to a collision.

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