Is it better to try to relax, or brace yourself prior to a car crash?

Question

To clarify: say you saw that someone was going to crash into you when driving (or passenger) - would you be best to grab the wheel and "brace" yourself, (like they advise in plane crashes), or to try & go limp "like a lettuce" (the theory I've been informed here is to evade injuries because your body won't be prone to "breaks" when you're relaxed).

Answer 1

i dont know maybe relax if youy have your seatbelt on and brace if you dont

Answer 2

I'd have to agree that relaxed is better. But in reality, you don't normally have much time to think about it.

I was broadsided at an intersection once by someone who ran a red light. I saw it coming, and believe me, there's no way to describe that feeling when you know you're going to be hit. If you haven't experienced it, you have no idea.

I will never forget it, even though it was a fraction of a second. There was no way I had any time to think about whether to brace or remain relaxed. It happened too quickly. I wasn't hurt, but it made me sick when I looked in the back seat and saw my small daughter's car seat. It took the full force. Thankfully she wasn't with me at the time.

A normal human reaction would be to brace if you could see it coming for several seconds, even though it may not be the best way. But with most crashes, you don't have the luxury of making a decision.

Answer 3

Relax. My dad was a cop for 25 years. He always said that drunks always survive crashes. He got in a really bad accident when he was in the squad car. He was the passenger and the car was T-boned on the passenger side. As the car was coming at them, he said he thought to himself "go limp, drunks always survive". His partner ended up being paralyzed. The impact was on my dad's side of the vehicle, so you'd think he would have been in worse shape than his partner. I know it's not exactly proven, but I'll always relax if I'm in a situation like that.

Answer 4

It is true that a relaxed person is at less risk of injury than a tense person.

When you stiffen muscles before a crash and you make your body more rigid.  Your muscles fight against the large amount of inertial energy and make it so that your body does not transfer as much as it absorbs.  When you're relaxed and more limp your body is able to flex and bend a bit more and tranfer the energy without taking as much of a beating.

A good analogy is a piece of uncooked spaghetti versus a partially cooked one.  If you were to try and bend both types the raw pasta will not flex and so will fracture from the stress where as the partially cooked pasta has greater flexibility and will only break at a comparably extreme amount of stress.

Answer 5

Relax. The forces exerted on your body during a crash are tremendous. Many times your own body weight. Bracing yourself will result in more serious injuries.

Answer 6

4 months ago, I was making a left turn at a T and saw someone speeding my way (at 45mph). I remember gasping, hit the gas so she wouldn't hit my door, and then immediately hitting the brakes. She hit the back end of my car- yet i'm still out of work because of injury. Things happen too quickly to really relax...

The side airbags come out fast... If you are going to get in a head on collision, turn your head or the airbag may break your nose!

Answer 7

The luckiest people in car crashes are usually those that are asleep or unaware.. this is because you are relaxed...

But, I doubt ANYONE who sees it coming would ever have time to THINK ABOUT RELAXING or if they did, be able to RELAX in a crash situation...  Best to have your airbags in working order and your seatbelt on at all times!

You do NOT want to lean forward in a pending car crash as in an airplane... the airbags and seat belt in a car is designed for a sitting upstraight person... whereas an airplanes seats ARE SPECIFICALLY designed for people to survive a HEADS down crash - they are designed so the seats collapse with the person in this position - and there are MANY other reasons to assume the crash position in an airplane!!!

Stiffening your arms on the wheel is also probably NOT good - although the airbag is specifically designed to PUSH your arms out and away from the wheel in an accident (good thing) and this would most likely knock the average person's hands off the wheel no matter how 'tense' they are...  (again, a good thing).

Of course ALL of this depends on the crash speed... and the car is designed to crumple/airbag deploy differently at different crash speeds and different crash angles... Something a human doesn't have time to adjust for...  so, long of the short - sit up in your seat, enjoy the ride, and WEAR YOUR SEATBELT!

Let's just hope it never happens to you or me!  and don't go around as a passenger sleeping all the time 'just in case' - someone needs to keep the driver awake too ;)

Answer 8

Relaxing will always be better in the long run.

Answer 9

Well, they say drunk people don't tend to get hurt as bad as people that haven't had a drink, because they are more relaxed.  Having said that, because I know I will get a lot of thumbs down for that statement, yes, drunk people do get in more accidents.  But we are talking about bracing yourself vs. not bracing yourself.  ( I did hear that from a police officer though)