Analysis of the impact of incidents reveals the statistically safest place in a car. However, a study of frontal crashes conducted in the United States by the Institute of Highway Safety showed that more than half of rear seat passengers were more seriously injured than those in the front.
People Also Ask
According to research data, sitting in the backseat of a car during an accident is far safer than occupying the front seats. But the award for the safest seat in the car goes to the one place that no one ever wants to get stuck: the back-middle seat.
Why is the middle seat safest? Simply stated, the middle seat is the furthest from impact during a collision, as well as the furthest away from air bags. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recommends that all children under the age of 13 ride in the back seat, ideally in the center.
The safest position in a vehicle is to sit upright, with feet on the floor, like you would in a chair, with a seat belt fastened. Airbags function with the assumption that passengers are sitting upright.
The most important passenger gets to ride shotgun in the front passenger seat. These people include the driver's parent, significant other, or boss. The second most important person sits in the curbside back seat, and the third most important passenger would ride in the other side of the back seat.
All shoulder belts typically have an emergency locking retractor. With this type of retractor, during normal driving you can lean forward and back and the seat belt will slide in and out, but when you slam on the brakes in an emergency, the shoulder belt locks and holds you tight.
The University of Buffalo concluded that back seat riders are anywhere from 59-86% safer than front seat occupants. Beyond that, passengers riding in the middle are 25% safer than other backseat riders.
“The smoothest place to sit is over the wings,” says commercial pilot Patrick Smith, host of AskThePilot.com. These seats are close to the plane's center of lift and gravity. “The roughest spot is usually the far aft. In the rearmost rows, closest to the tail, the knocking and swaying is more pronounced.”
The NHTSA says car seats reduce fatalities by 54 percent. But it draws the comparison with children sitting in cars unrestrained and not using a seat belt. A popular argument against using seat belts is that they do not fit kids properly.