[GTO]

Originally Posted by narendra.vw

Rear left for RHD & Rear right for LHD vehicles.
It’s officially followed by most officials in Government vehicles.

I think this has more to do with comfort than safety. When you have an empty chair ahead of you, you can push it forward all you want, and remove its headrest (for frontward visibility) too.

[KiloAlpha]

Fatal accidents involving cars on the highway frequently are collisions with trucks and buses. In such cases, while the structure of the car is designed to absorb impact, the body of the truck/bus is most certainly not. Which all ends up with a huge impact on the A-pillar, making most of the life saving crumple zones useless.
Front is most definitely not the place to be in such cases.

I would vote for the middle back seat, but properly belted up with a 3-point seat belt.

[narendra.vw]

Originally Posted by GTO

I think this has more to do with comfort than safety. When you have an empty chair ahead of you, you can push it forward all you want, and remove its headrest (for frontward visibility) too.

This has been followed world wide.
Usually front seat are occupied by their subordinates. These officials don't worry about what's happening in the front. Even some Big private company CEO’s are insisted to follow this. Any head on collision first impact is on the Driver side.

If you ask me in a Bike I would say, Rider is safer than the pillion

[CarJunki]

Originally Posted by GTO

I think this has more to do with comfort than safety. When you have an empty chair ahead of you, you can push it forward all you want, and remove its headrest (for frontward visibility) too.

Yes and we will do well to remember the recent death of Gopinath Munde (Was central minister). He was in the back seat where most of the officials occupy and the accident turned out to be fatal.


For safety, first thing is to choose a vehicle properly equipped with safety features. If there are active and passive safety features in the car, then Front passenger seat is more safe in case of frontal collision. Remember on the driver side there is a Steering wheel. Injury from steering wheel is a major contributor to deaths.

I have seen seat belts saving a lot of lives and permanent injuries.

[AutoInt]

One of my father's friend lost his wife, sitting in the rear right side seat, in an accident few years back. Recent examples in this thread are of any indication to go by, no seat is safe in absolute terms.

Most of the B and C segment cars do not have proper seat belts for rear center seat (some offer lap belt) and does not help in safety.

Relatively speaking, rear left can be the safer option provided seat belt is used and driver drives safe.

[condor]

Considering the car he has got, it's the front seat.

If he were yet to buy a car, then the rear seat of a car with side-curtain airbags would have been better - provided he is belted up in the rear seat too.

[Sak_speedster]

In my opinion the driver's seat is the safest. I cannot trust anybody else other than me for driving me around.

I get anxious and start blabbering till the time the other person stops the vehicle and hands over the steering to me

[GTO]

Originally Posted by CarJunki

Yes and we will do well to remember the recent death of Gopinath Munde (Was central minister). He was in the back seat where most of the officials occupy and the accident turned out to be fatal.

Originally Posted by AutoInt

One of my father's friend lost his wife, sitting in the rear right side seat, in an accident few years back.

99%, neither of them had worn the rear seatbelt. Very few people do in India.

A good reminder to all of us to buckle up on the back seat (in the city too). If I'm on the backseat of an Uber, I always make it a point to buckle up. Even a 50 km/h crash is enough for fatal head injuries.

Comedian Jaspal Bhatti died in this accident. He was on the backseat & hadn't buckled up.

Source

[drive_angry]

Hello Vikash49,

I voted for option ‘other’. IMHO, if we don’t consider the driver seat, (which I think is the safest) the safest seat would be the seat behind the driver. The reason is purely behavioral i.e. in a situation where one feels threatened or in danger, with no time to think, one tends to save himself from the adverse situation. Its the human instinct (Read: gut instinct) to shield/protect himself first from any threats with not even split second to spare. For this reason, I have noticed politicians & VVIPs traveling behind the driver seat or it can be purely coincidental and I am thinking too much.


Cheers!
drive_angry

[interest]

Hi All, for every example that we give of an accident in which the front passenger seat occupant died, we would also have an example where the rear left seat occupant didn't survive. To a great extent it also depends on how the accident happened. If it was a side impact, I guess the chances of a fatal injury are equal for both front passenger and the rear left seat passenger. If it was a head on collision, which I believe is the more likely case in the situation described in the opening post given that most of the travel is on undivided 2 lane highways, my guess is that the extra layer of padding (from the front passenger seat) and metal would help reduce the injury to the rear left seat passenger.

It is always advisable to keep an eye on the road even if you are a passenger. In some cases you may even be lucky to get an opportunity to avert an accident by alerting the driver (for instance where the driver is sleepy). In most cases, however, the reaction time would be too little. I was lucky enough to escape an accident this morning. The car in my adjoining lane suddenly braked hard and swerved left into my lane because a bike cut across it. I managed to stop barely a couple of feet from it and luckily was not rear ended either. I don't think as a driver I could have done anything about such an accident let alone doing anything as a front seat passenger. Even if I had crashed into this car, I am sure a significant impact would not have been felt by the rear left seat passenger. But again this is my guess.

[d3mon]

I 'think' the rear seat will be safer, even in the absence of airbags, because of the extra 'crumple zone' in front of you. Airbags are no magic bullet - they just happen to be nicer than plastics to ram your head into. The rear seat can be made to avoid this problem altogether - just push the front passenger seat all the way forward while you're sitting at the back.

[Bageera]

My Vote goes for A.

If I am not driving, I always prefer front left seat as I will be more involved in the drive. Sitting behind would be kind of disconnected with whats happening in the front.
Regarding wearing seat belts, I have personally seen most of the people who would use them while sitting in front seat, would give it a skip while sitting in back seat.

Two years back while traveling with two friends in my Innova, we met with an accident in L&T Road, Coimbatore. Since all 3 of us were wearing seat belts, we escaped unhurt. Later my friend sitting at back, he confessed that just because Innova had a captain seat, he wore seat belt or else he would not have. That's the kind of mindset most people have.

[The Rationalist]

To be honest, I'm very scared to be a passenger with most drivers. I'm a very proactive driver, constantly looking out for narrow roads joining onto roads I'm driving, trying to anticipate that the person on the edge of the road can make a sudden move, the one driving in the middle of the road can turn without giving signal,looking for vehicle reflections onto walls in corners, headlight reflections at night. All most all drivers whom I have traveled are reactive drivers, who make a reactive move , which could have been avoided in the first place. So I don't the taxis for long drives mostly, only inside city limits.

If I'm traveling far, I usually make sure that the driver had not been driving for long hours just before he picked me up. I had to take the wheel once, when the driver dozed off and made it a point after that scary day to check his driving hours for that day before we start. I explicitly enforce the dictum, you can't drive above 70 kms an hour, when I'm in no hurry, he has no reason to hurry up. And I always tell that they can't answer phones while driving, if they have to, they can park in a safe place. I only let my family ride with one or two taxi fellows. If they aren't there, I opt for trains. Even in taxis, I take the left rear seat, as I haven't seen any taxi with passenger side airbags till date. And I constantly monitor the drivers eyes to detect any drooping. This may sound too much, but I always look for the worst case scenario. When traveling with friends I take the front seat if there are no other passengers. Most friends know my nature, so most tend to drive cautious.

[dark.knight]

To be honest, we're missing a variable in this equation to find out the SAFEST seat in a car - type of accident/location of impact. Its as simple as that.

- If the location of impact is left rear door, the other 3 seats are safer to be in (right rear, left front, right front).

- If its a frontal bender the rear seats are safer.

- If its a rear bender the front seats are safer, specially in a hatchback.

- It goes without saying that NO SEAT is safer if one doesn't belt up.

- It also goes without saying that 6 airbags will make all the seats safer, while 2 airbag vehicles will only protect front occupants.

- If the car turns turtle and flips multiple times no seat is safe.

While this is a perfectly genuine question, we may be just overthinking on this one. Safe car+safety assists+careful driving+using seatbelts will make just about any seat as safe as can be, rest is dependant on the variable.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by GTO

To me, the safest seat is the driver's seat

LOL... I entirely agree!

Originally Posted by vikash49

The debate steered towards road safety and from there on to which is the safest seat in the car.
He always travels in the front passenger seat and is of the firm belief that in an Airbag equipped car, this is the safest seat for a passenger. (Marked - A – in the image)

He has three arguments to support his belief:
+ Two pairs of eyes on the road
+ Chauffer stays more alert as owner is seated next to him
+ Huge passenger airbag to cushion the impact in case of an accident

...a large portion of his traveling on undivided highways, there’s a huge risk of head on collisions.

Undivided highways with unruly HGV traffic exposes one to the serious possibility of an under-ride crash in this country. Airbags or not, under-ride crashes invariably kill front seat occupants.

The rear seat without seat belt being used is just as bad, but yes, with a seat belt, and with the front passenger seat back folded down, reduces the chances of serious craniofacial injuries in a frontal crash. In a rollover or T-boning crash without side curtain airbags, the risk of serious craniofacial injuries is again very high.

The best seat to minimize crash injury risk is the middle rear seat with at least a 4-point harness. I don't think the friend is interested to either install a 4-point harness or sit in the middle seat of the rear bench.

There is always someone in this country who can be depended on to help in an emergency - a statuette/picture of a divinity on the dashboard.