By 1950, almost every race-car driver used safety seat belts.
American car manufacturers Nash (in 1949) and Ford (in 1955) offered seat belts as options, while Swedish Saab first introduced seat belts as standard in 1958. After the Saab GT 750 was introduced at the New York Motor Show in 1958 with safety belts fitted as standard, the practice became commonplace.
In 1973, GM’s Oldsmobile Toronado became the first car ever with a passenger airbag. Later on, GM made its own air cushion restraint system (ACRS) available as an option for regular production cars such as Cadillacs, Oldsmobile and Buick models during 1974.
They made cars equipped with ACRS on the driver side, driver-side knee restraint, and the passenger side. The passenger side airbag protects front passengers, and also included a dual stage deployment, which depended on the force of impact.
Before seatbelts and airbags, here are 20 vintage photos that show car accidents in the 1910s and 1920s.
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| A car and train collision on the level crossing at Weasenham Lane, Wisbech, March 4, 1910 |
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| Fatal racing accident, Illinois, 1910 |
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| An early electric automobile hangs precariously off the Glen Road Bridge, Ontario in the winter of 1912 |
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| A car accident in 1912 |
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| An early automobile wreck, 1913 |
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| A classic car collision with a street lamp, 1918 |
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| Auto accident No. 1042 Bloor Street West near Walmer Road. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 4 March 1918 |
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| Car wreck with two wheels missing, 1918 |
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| Trolley vs car crash in Washington D.C., 1918 |
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| A two-car collision in Washington D.C., circa 1919 |
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| Car wreck from the late 1910s |
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| A fashioned automobile crashed into tree, 1920 |
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| An overturned car, 1920 |
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| Traffic accident in Washington, D.C, 1920 |
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| A car collided with a bus in Waltham, Mass., 1921 |
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| Booze bootlegger car crash aftermath, 1922 |
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| Model “T” Ford wrecked on a median, 1922 |
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| Motor vehicle crash, 1922 |
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| Prohibition-era car wreck with boxes of moonshine, 1922 |
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| An antique motor vehicle wreck in 1926 |
thnks
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