Front Seat Or Back Seat: Which Is Safer? - Fifth Gear 

Further research by experts have conclude that it's safer to just stay home.

the safest was the mother in law , in the trunk

Another poor Focus laid to rest.

should have used a 7 seater and have 1 in each of the 3 rows

This test doesn't replicate a 50mph crash into a stationary car. Main reason being, a stationary car would also be launched forwards on impact lessening the impact on the moving car, not act like a solid immovable wall.

Craigslist be like minor damage, still runs like new

I had a crash in the same car like this one (2001 mk1 Focus) back in 2009 when my friend was driving and some drunk idiot swerwed into us head on, I was sitting on the rear passenger seat and we crashed at around 40mph (65 kmh) - the driver had a broken right foot, 2 broken fingers (police said it was from the airbag cuz he probably wasn't holding the wheel correctly) and a serious headache which lasted for a week, but me and the other two friends were completely fine (except for minor bruises, seatbelt burnmarks and a neckpain). So if I will ever have another crash, I'd prefer to seat in the back or at least on the passenger seat. The focus is a really safe car though, my neighbor got killed a couple of years ago in a 2002 Renault Megane when he crashed into a bridge at 30-40mph because the car then caught fire and he couldn't get out cuz the doors were still locked, even when firemen arrived. After that, I always keep two window breaker tools in the glove box (got them for 5$ on eBay).

Depends on too many variables - car design, rear impact / front impact, size & weight of passengers, luggage within the vehicle etc etc.. I.E - not very scientific. But interesting nonetheless :)

Should redo the test with a more modern car than using a 16 year old car..just to see the difference

"Behind the wheel are two dummies" 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I play a lot of BeamNG and as my tests modern cars do a great job of making a chamber with the passengers and most impact does not reach the box in which the passengers are in upon front or rear impact

No seat belt can protect better than: - Keeping a safe distance - Driving according to road conditions - Maintaining your car in proper working order.

I swear at this point i only come to these videos to read the troll comments XD

What if the rear passenger wasn't wearing a seatbelt?

Sorry wut? The back should be the most relaxing? In the back of most cars you sit awful

Nice video!

Things are going forward even for the rear occupants. FORD is the first company to introduce airbags in seat belts - in Focus models in particular.

in my toyota there are airbags in all door panels, curtains everywhere, airbags in every seat, leg protecting air bags and basically every kind of airbag you can imagine

A collision with another car would push it forward, meaning not as much energy is transferred into the car hitting it. So although you can make projections, I don't think it would be nearly as severe as hitting a concrete barrier that doesnt budge an inch.

I think based on most crash tests the front generally seem to fair better than the rear for side impacts. I assume if you're in a head on crash it might be better in the rear, if you get hit hard from behind by a truck, the front might be better.

I thought the point of the test was to see if it is safer being as passenger in the front or the back. If the dummy had been in the front passenger seat it would have fared better because there are no pedals or steering wheel

2:36, "so where would you sit?" Sadly my legs and arms can't reach the controls from the back seat, so I'd have to day "I would sit in the drivers seat." 🙄

Welp, I always thought the back was the safest, will you do this again but with a 2017 or 2016 version that actually have airbags in the back?

I'll drive in the back then hand me that steering wheel ... Haha

Our family car is a 2010 fiesta (a 5 star car for front passenger and driver) but the rear is 4 stars so also good

Honestly I hate these dummy tests... humans react different than a motionless dummy... if the driver noticed that cars were stopped last second, they would most likely scream, causing the rear passenger to look up, realize the car is about to smash into the rear end of another car, and then tense up and hold themselves back or something along those lines... they aren't just gonna sit there like a dead fish lol

More tests like this are good

I just dont get it a Wall is solid and isnt moving or deforming just the 1 Ford Focus has to do all the work with the forces having to comprehend it all while 2 Cars would both share the force (Lets not forget Stopping Time) and the crash wouldn't be such severe also its very unlikely to crash into a wall and in most cases you either crash into a Tree,Car,Truck or into a ditch and all of it can work up the force while a rock solid wall can't do anything and just brings the Car to a Stop in an Instant and there isn't extra stopping time

I wonder why you don't get bags in the rear of the seat . Also a bag the is situated in the foot well that's job is solely to knock your feet off the pedals and towards the seat bottom, as the pedals start to intrude into the foot space.

1:07 I love how the dummy says to the car to go and stop

I used to have a 2005 Ford Focus and I was in a bad car accident on March 7,2012 with another car. The other car hit me on the side and made my car in a rolled over. I was wearing my seat belt. I had a broken ankle, few bruises, and a little bump. The broken ankle was the worse injury from it. The car was 4 Door hatchback just like this Ford Focus in Body style.

not the Ford focus. I love the focus

My looking at it now: wait there *is* airbags in the bag

what if you are in a 7 seater, with three rows, would you be safer in the middle, front or back??

"...because we should ALL know whether the front or rear seat is safest." Yeah... if it turns out the rear is safer I guess I'll just drive my car from there, Mr. Bean Style, steering and honking with my feet."

My mams car has rear airbags, I think. It has airbags in the pillar separating the front and rear doors but I don't know if they are meant to protect the driver or passenger...

All the little dummy scenes are great

that crackle from the impact though.

What happened to the front seat belt tenchior

What about the passenger seat? I mean, the driver can't very well sit in the rear, but how does the front passenger seat fare for safety, given it has no pedals to intrude or steering wheel against which to smash?

Don't worry about it. There are countless things that could kill you every time you leave the house. Don't let fear dictate your life.

the new fords have multi stage airbags that cushion the lower half of your body so it is also protected.

Now modern cars and ford galaxy has airbags underneath the steering wheel to. Cushion the drivers legs so the car makers trying to make drivers legs less hurt i don't know if this is right i might be Wong

What about a car seat? Also if kids are rear facing and are rear ended what happens?

In the hall he has a fresh pair of shoes😂😂

If you collide into a stationary car at 50, the law of conservation of momentum says that you won't come to a complete stop like this impact. Assuming both cars weight the same, the collision would decelerate your car down from 50mph to 25, not to zero like the collision with a fixed wall. It's a completely different severity of impact, since energies involved in a collision varies with the square of velocity change. On the other hand, this crash does show what happens if you run into something very heavy and uniform. Like a bus...

"perhaps with the introduction of rear air bags" how old is this ??? uploaded in 2016 but even then rear and side and basically everywhere air bags were not special

My reaction to the video: Seats doesn't matter. Your responsible driving is what really matters.

Seatbelt pre-tensioners in the back would have helped alot here.

why are there not air bags in back seat

what about airbags in the back f the drivers seat

What happened to the front of the hood

why left airbag shoot the windshield while another airbag is not

I hate these tests because it really depends on what kind of car you have

Need more modern cars

When I pull my seatbelt it doesn’t lock?

thought the Focus had good crash test ratings?

i would rather be in trunk . If it is front on

"no one really knows" - yeah im sure NCAP or any other regulatory body has ever tested to see if the front or back is safer, or got the results inadvertently

I want to know how a service bus performs in a crash, with no crumple zone, the driver sitting in front of the wheels.. no seatbelts, no airbags, bars all over the place...

Front passenger and rear passenger would have been a much more appropriate comparison. I mean, whatever you do the driver is always gonna be in this seat... A front passenger doesn't have pedals or a steering wheel, and unlike the rear he has an airbag. Front is better imo

I would sit in the front so I could drive

50 miles an hour into a solid block? Another car isn't solid, as implied. So rear-ending another car doesn't impart the same amount of crash energy into the cars structure. It would have been better to a deformable barrier.

„Its time for some hardcore research“ slams car into wall

Why didn't they test a front passenger? He/she has the benefit of airbags and belt pre-tensioners, but without the intrusion of a steering wheel or pedals! I'd bet that was the safest place to be, although the way the passenger airbag shattered the windscreen in this car is a bit worrying! But admittedly hitting a concrete block at 50mph is MUCH worse than hitting another car at 50mph..

I think it depends on the car like in a Volvo you would be absulutly fine in both places

4:27 That airbag inflated with so much force that it almost cracked the entire windshield.

the car would not stay still when hit it would still roll a bit so the impact will not be as dramatic

most of the time, crashes are with other cars and not concrete walls.

What about the speed of 200 Kilometers per hour.

It depends which way you crash e.g. Side

Love how the passenger airbag breaks the windshield. also FUCK NO to rear airbags. that would make front seats hard as rocks and you'd have to replace the whole seat.

The passenger airbag smashes the windshield...

Should've put the front dummy in the passenger seat because the driver has to sit in the front passengers can sit anywhere

I think from passagner vs back passagner would have been more ideal

Crashing into a solid wall is different then rearending a car. The rear end will deform and absorb some of the energy. The driver would likely survive at 50 miles per hour. But although the test is flawed you got your point across. Back seat is safer in frontal crashes.

The dummy in the front was my cosson

yeah

The Front Passenger Airbag On The Focus Just Shattered The Front Windshield That May Cut The Passenger

Do this same exact test but tow the car in reverse

If Dodi and Diana was belted they had 95% chance of stay alive

Back seats are safer but not the most comfortable for the passenger. Auto manufacturers know that most people just drive their cars alone to work and back and have just one more person sitting next to them in the front on rare occasions so they don't have to improve the ride comfort and luxury in the back half of the car. The back seats just have children sitting on them during the school run which means that giving them any sort of control would be a distraction for the driver. Hence why the back seats in most are are plain. Unless it's a luxury long wheel based car that comes with its own driver.

Km/h...???

How about the roof

looks like the dummy is really close to the steering wheel ... :)

Whether it is front seat or rear seat, I'm definitely wouldn't want to take middle rear seat

In case of frontal impact, the back with seatbelt anytime.

Not a fair test. If you hit a stationary vehicle at 50mph. That vehicle is going to move with the impact, so it's less of a sudden stop.

Depends which side u crashed if it was the front I would sit in the back if it is in the back I would be in the front

how about the other front seat

Cars are now designed to be extremely safe in the type of crash simulated by Ncap. But every real world crash is different, and not at all like the Ncap test. A 5 star car, could, in the real world still kill you, where as in some situations, you may walk away from a 2 star car unharmed. It's all down to that elusive old thing called luck. Much better to modify your own driving style and drive in the safest possible way, don't take unnecessary risk, don't use excessive speed, leave plenty of stopping distance and help avoid as much as possible having the accident in the first place.

I think for the driver is would be the safest place to be in the back because the car won't move

Unless you have a luxurious car, the back is usually cramped with no legroom. A lot of cars these days have rear and curtain airbags, so maybe repeat this test on a car with rear and curtain airbags.

Futher studies showed that it is safer driving a donkey. It has lower speeds and has built in self steering away from broken down donkeys on the middle of the road. No seat belt or airbags required.

I would rather be in trunk

If 50 mph doesn't feel really fast, I want to experience a 125 mph crash test and 125 mph wheel falling off and/or flip.

it looks like the passenger airbag broke the windshield

Decades of crash testing and no one has measured what happens to the kids in the back. Gee, Thanks, regulators, manufacturers, testers, journalists, and consumers!

Of Course they know

My dad's friend has one