No seat belts and backup lights, even in 59 how dumb could they be by not making them mandatory?? The lap belt didn't do much but better than nothing. Even if the 59 had a shoulder belt also with the lap also it wouldn't of helped much in that crash test.. I guess I always had a false sense of security feeling really safe in the big boats I drove back in the day. Way off the cuff, I wonder how a 73 Riv or Electra would of done in the test. My 73 Riv was weighed at almost 5200 lbs.
Nobody wanted belts in this era. The '48 Tucker proposed belts but they decided the impression would be they would imply the car was unsafe (by needing them). Ford's '56 'Safety First' program pushing belts didn't see enough takers to continue for '57. No domestic brand had standard belts in '59-60. They were usually available & dealer-installed, but very uncommon. GM first installed seat belt 'bosses' in the floors for front passengers in '62. My '64 GP has no belts. The Fed required outer front belts be standard in Jan of '66.
My '62 300 had belts, the 300H did not. Believe it or not, the Nash Statesman and Ambassador had them as an option in 1950! Ford and Chrysler offered belts as an option in some of their cars in 1958. Front seat belt anchors were required by the Feds starting in 1962.
That is insane stupidity on car builders. Have you added seat belts on your 64 GP? My 66 Skylark GS had belts front and rear. Was it the model year 66 that the feds required them or cars manufactured after or in Jan? I'm guessing the rear belts on my 66 were options or am I wrong? I have seen video's of 1970+ GM cars with a single driver air bag which i'm sure youv'e seen and the guy mentioned he loved the air bag because he didn't have to keep buckling and un buckling his seat belt
Like I said - the motoring public wasn't very interested in belting in. Even if OEMs had them standard in everything in 1960- they'd almost never have been worn. I haven't added belts to the '64 yet- undecided. I am going to add aftermarket belts that came out of a '64 Catalina on my B-59 (outer front passenger). I still don't belt up 100% of the time- most of what I've owned has been built in the '60s, and I've been in full-size pickups for about 27 years now. I expect that manufacturers made front outer belts standard for '66 knowing the Jan 1 '66 law was coming. Seat belts for all seating positions were required by federal law for '68.
Is it legal to drive pre 66 non seat belt cars or is it limited? I guess I can google it but i'm guessing each State has different rules?
My long-running understanding of that is that there has yet to be a retro-active automotive equipment law; if it was legal when built, it's still legal today. No one is putting air bags in a '65 Mustang, for example.
Federal mandate for standard seatbelts in all seating positions went into effect Jan.1, 1968. I believe Buicks had front seat belt in outer position standard for the '64 model year, and the rest for '68.
My '66 Toronado has seatbelts front and rear (?). Next time I have the rear seat out, I'll check out the body mountings.
A driver's side air bag was optional on some GM models in 1974 (Buick, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac). As vocational teacher in Massachusetts, I was required to take "improvement" courses. I usually took mine at the GM training center in Dedham, Ma. In about 1990 one of the instructore told us this story: A man from Worcester, MA bought a used 1974 full-size Oldsmobile; he was driving it one night when a drunk driver hit him head-on. The Olds driver saw the other car coming, but didn't have time to take corrective action. He said that he was sure that he was going to die. All of a sudden something seemed to explode in the Olds and there was a terriffic impact. When the Olds driver gathered up his senses, he was sitting in a pile of powder, with white cloth all over the place. He was unhurt. The other driver was killed. The guy with the Oldsmobile had no idea that the car had airbags. When GM found out about the airbag deployment, they bought the wreck. At the time it was the oldest airbag deployment ever.
I remember reading about one of those early airbags going off in an accident many years later and GM buying the wreck. Those used compressed gas, not pyrotechnics....?
Wow... Do you know if he was also wearing a seat belt? I did not know the airbags were placed for all the front passengers. The Olds dash i'm guessing was on the GM models?? Why would they discontinue such a important option that seemed to work well or were there malfunctions? I realize that the front cabin wasn't a crunch zone for optimum safety but the airbags alone were helpful..
