The cars of yesteryear could be quite dangerous. Sure, they were slower than today’s vehicles, but they also lacked standard safety features, like seat belts, airbags, shatterproof glass, and bumpers. Basically metal boxes on narrow tires, cars of the past were not designed with a thorough understanding of physics. They were top-heavy and prone to tipping, as you can see in this collection of colorized photographs from the 1930s.
Those skinny tires made old cars less stable. (clickamericana.com)
Although there were a fair number of tragic deaths from car accidents in the 1920s and 1930s, these colorized photos will give you a look at the more comical and unbelievable car wrecks of the time.
Early Car Wrecks
How on earth did this happen? (rarehistoricalphotographs.com)
In the first few decades of automobile use, car wrecks were not uncommon. First, folks were not used to driving motorized vehicles. Second, the cars themselves could be glitchy. Engines died, tires blew, frames collapsed, and more because production standards and safety measures were not yet in place. In the 1920s, the National Safety Council was established. It was tasked with keeping stats on car accidents, as well as raising public awareness about safe driving. Cars were still a novelty item into the 1930s. When a car crash happened, crowds of onlookers flocked to the scene to take in the carnage. Fortunately for us, they also snapped photographs.
Growing Concern
Traffic accidents were such a public safety issue that the president stepped in. (rarehistoricalphotos.com)
Beginning in the 1930s, with the introduction of the national highway system, the U.S. public grew more concerned about the safety of automobile travel. There were a series of highly publicized car crashes that were plastered on the front pages of newspapers around the country, highlighting the problem. This led President Franklin Roosevelt to write a letter to all the state governors in 1935. In this letter, he asked the nation’s governors to implement ways to reduce the number of deaths and injuries from automobile accidents. There seemed to be two avenues to accomplish this. First, laws could be passed to punish drivers for erratic driving. Second, car manufacturers could look for ways to make their vehicles safer to drive.
Finally, Some Traffic Laws
New laws set driving age and prohibited drunk driving. (rarehistoricalphotos.com)
In the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s, states passed laws and regulations to control the behavior of drivers behind the wheel. Placing speed limits on rural and urban roads certainly made a difference in the number of traffic fatalities. Laws were also passed to fine drivers for failing to abide by traffic signals, like stop signs. Additional laws made driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated a crime. Lastly, states set minimum driving ages for drivers to prevent youngsters from taking the wheel. We may raise an eyebrow about this today, but in the 1920s and 1930s, families often allowed their children – as young as nine and ten years old – to take the family car for a spin around the neighborhood.
Safety Features
Car needed to be more stable and safe. (clickamericana.com)
Car manufacturers recognized that the design flaws in their vehicles were contributing to accidents and deaths. Steps were taken to improve the designs. Cars were made to be more stable and less prone to tipping and rolling. Shatter-proof glass was used to make windshields. Brakes were added to all four wheels, not just the front two. Sadly, many of the safety features that were invented in the 1930s were not implemented into vehicles until decades later, as we will see next.
Safety Features That Were Ahead of Their Time
Oops, how did this car wind up in the drink? (rarehistoricalphotos.com)
In the 1930s, inventors and designers at American car companies listened to the public’s concerns and complaints and set about creating safety features. It may surprise many people to learn that things like seat belts, padded dashboards, all-steel bodies, shock-absorbing steering columns, and hydraulic brakes were all invented in the 1930s. You won’t find these features on cars of that decade, however. The outbreak of World War II shifted focus away from car manufacturing and to the war effort. Adding standard safety features to cars would wait until after the war had ended … and longer.
The First Seat Belt
The driver must have been distracted. (rarehistoricalphotos.com)
We have to fast forward nearly thirty years to find the first car with a three-point seatbelt. That car was the Volvo PV544, a Swedish car that was released in August of 1959. Although European car companies were quicker to install seatbelts on their vehicles, it took U.S. carmakers much longer to get on the bandwagon. The federal law mandating seatbelts be installed in all automobiles didn’t start until 1968. During the pre-seatbelt days, as this collection of colorized photographs show, driving was a dangerous undertaking.
