Safety and conscious

I will probably never forget the meeting of the Four Wheel Drive Clubs Association I attended on April 19, 1980. On the way home, an old full-size sedan shot out of a dark laneway on my right, cannoned into the side of my new Scout and threw it across the road and over on to it's roof!

Once I had realized that I was still alive and (miraculously) uninjured, my only thought was to get out. Get out! Get out! kept racing through my mind. Having seen dozens of movies showing the aftermath of accident, I was fearful that the Scout, with its wheels pointing to those great 4WD trails in the sky, would suddenly become a gasoline-fueled furnace.

The windows wouldn't open because the frames had been distorted. And no matter how hard I kicked at them with my soft-soled shoes, there seemed little likelihood of the glass breaking. Fortunately, a bystander managed to put his boot through one from the outside.

The accident has made me more aware of several things: (a) anyone who reckons seat belts infringe on their freedom are just plain crazy; (b) provided it' legal, have a small axe or hammer strapped within reach of the drivers seat. This could be a lifesaver in many situations it could help you to get out of your own vehicle, to break into another vehicle where someone else is trapped, or even for protection should some hoodlum decide to try and hijack you and/or your car; and (ac) a fire extinguisher must be visibly mounted and within reach. I had a BCF fire extinguisher in the console, where it had sat for three weeks waiting to be fitted. However, in the panic of the moment, and because it was not immediately visible, I forgot all about it.

Another thing that has been reinforced in my mind is the, relatively, better safety margin of large vehicles over small ones. I had always thought that people who bought small cars could be doing so at the cost of some reduction in occupant safety. I now believe that even more. Can you imagine what a similar side-on impact one that could throw a heavy International across the road and onto its roof would have done to some of the popular econo-boxes?. OK, I know there are always a lot of ifs. But what is the point of saving fifty dollars a week in fuel bills if you end up in a wheelchair, or even worse.

In my case, the chances of surviving the 1980 accident, had I been in a small sedan, would have been minimal. I know I'm biased. But I also know that I have taken about 600 million bonus breaths in the last quarter of a century!

The insurers of the Scout reckoned it was better to pay me off than have it repaired. That suited me. It formed the basis of a great project and, when finished, fetched as much as the original new price.