Car seats were designed for a certain posture. So too are a car’s safety mechanisms which assume that you’re in a sitting position. Taking up other postures of comfort like putting your legs on the dashboard, can have disastrous results.
When you’re relaxing in the front seat and your feet are up there, there is a lot of potential for serious life-changing injury or even death in the event of an accident.
This is because when an airbag deploys during a crash, it’s going to send your legs flying backwards and smashing into your face with a dangerous amount of force. This can result in serious injuries like multiple fractures, permanent damage to eyesight and hearing, brain damage, amnesia or even instant death – death from an airbag which was designed to save your life.
It happened to Audra Tatum, a mother from Georgia in the USA who was sitting in the front seat beside her husband. Several bones got broken in her leg, hip and right side after their car slammed into another car which appeared out of nowhere.
She had to have several operations to treat her injuries and yet she still limps. Audra also has a few screws in some of her joints. All other things being equal, if she had been sitting, her chances of getting injured would have been minimal.
Apart from your own legs, putting certain items on the dashboard can also be dangerous. Metallic and ceramic items especially, can be very dangerous during an accident when they are hurled back at high speed into the passengers.
A sharp object being thrown backwards from the dashboard due to a crash, could penetrate the skin and also result in life-threatening injuries or death.