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Well this is interesting. Communication, especially using these short blips of information, is a challenge.
Thank you for you kind wishes for my wife's recovery.
So to clarify, the fact that my wife survived this crash is absolutely the most important thing. It happened to be my birthday and I’m clear that having my wife, alive, is the best possible gift I could ever receive.
I have repeatedly offered the vehicle and any information that anybody wanted about the crash. I offered both Saab and the dealer indemnification. Both my wife and I are, and have been, involved in emergency medicine for our entire careers. We offered this in the spirit of continually improving the current vehicle safety situation. Whether that be for public education about use of restraints, the positive outcome from Saab’s engineering approach to safety, or the horrors of drugs/alcohol on our roads. It also occurs to me that offering the vehicle to the manufacturer/dealer, as opposed to outside engineers would be a poor legal strategy on our part.
Like wise, we think that it is an opportunity to analyze a real world crash, on a real world car, and the impact of service, in the real world. I have taught vehicle extrication for more that thirty years. I have taught advanced drivers/collision avoidance education. I have been the director of emergency services for a Formula one event. I have worked on hundreds of vehicle crashes.
I also have some knowledge of what goes on, in attempting to produce safe vehicles. While many factors are studied, I’m unaware of a scenario that looks at outcomes from vehicles that may have been improperly serviced such as this case. Maybe Saab has all the data they need that shows what happens when all the fasteners are not reinstalled in dash components. If that’s so and they are happy with it, then so be it.
Are we satisfied with the current level of crash protection in motor vehicles? No. Do we acknowledge that there have been great strides? Yes. Has Saab been a leader in some of those improvements? Yes. Did this Saab protect my wife from a much worse outcome? Absolutely.
Is Saab the only manufacturer that put a premium on safety? No. How do you advances in this, or any other field? By studying the failures and making improvements.
Any organization has struggles internally. I can’t help but wonder what happened when the Saab safety culture ran into GMs culture? I can not answer that. I can tell you that, I personally, have never seen a dealership been a force in safety. They are about sales. Hopefully we will send a small message that we, as consumers, are very concerned about safety, including the impact that vehicle service has on vehicle safety.
We have been long time Saab supporters. We believe that the engineering played a huge role in protecting my wife. The intrusion into the foot boxes is a problem, as is the seat rotation that moves the patient’s head closer to the steering wheel/dash. It probably is well known to Saab engineering. It seems like a formidable problem. I suggest that they are committed to fixing it
While we certainly don’t want lower extremity injuries, we can’t tolerate head injuries. In THIS case, the ejection of the lower shroud and heater control unit did no harm. I can not say that would be the outcome if there were passengers in the car. If nothing else, Saab could use the photos, and narrative of their own, to reinforce to service technicians the importance of replacing every fastener. Certainly the photos have had an impact on this group. Our decision to actively explore other crashworthy vehicles is based on our perceived impression “that the ejection of the components into the passenger compartment possibly due to improper service is not worth investigating” Note again, this is our impression.
To answer some other questions posed:
The injuries to the other driver are unknown to me, the patient’s medical information is protected by law and we respect that. We do know that he was admitted to ICU for several days, has been released and arrested.
The problem of drivers under the influence is not an issue of age, race, or financial status. It is a huge problem that stretches across all sections of our society. In the state of Michigan we are seeing a large decrease of law enforcement activity due to current budget restrictions. Michigan State Police has not replaced troopers lost to attrition for a couple of years.
I don’t think the data supports a position that intoxicated drivers suffer less injuries than those patient’s not intoxicated.
The Honda damage was more severe than the Saab in this crash. That damage was a result of several factors. The Honda did not initially strike as broadly as the Saab. The Honda was in a yaw as it struck the Saab. The Honda was older in an environment were road salt is heavily used. The Honda had after market modifications that may have affected its crash worthiness. The modifications to the suspension maybe a factor in the loss of control.
My wife’s normal seat position is near the far back position. She is about 5’10”
So, to summarize, I am very, very happy that my wife survived this crash with “RELATIVELY” minor injuries.
We are clear, that the design of the Saab played a major role in her good outcome.
The foot box intrusion is problematic, as is the rotation of the drivers seat toward the steering wheel/dash. We believe these are known issues and are being addressed.
The ejection of components into the passenger compartments is not acceptable. Regardless of the primary design of the vehicle, if service produces variations in the design that allows for failure, then the ultimate result is poor. The failure to even do a cursory inspection when offered, reflects poorly on Saab and on the dealer. We have not found a method to effectively communicate these issues to Saab management.
There are other manufacturers who produce vehicles that perform as well, and in some cases better, than Saab in crashes. They may have better systems to collect information on vehicle performance in real world crashes.
posted by 24.247.3...
http://www.lifesupport.com/saab/
, Thu, 11 Dec 2003 13:54:53, Tue, 9 Dec 2003 09:52:05, Wed, 10 Dec 2003 09:35:13
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