currently scanning some slides for a guy who was stationed in Japan in the early to mid 60's. just ran across these 2:
A buddy of mine driving his Dad's 59 Custom many moons ago. Balled it up after hitting black ice. He ended up outside of the car under the rocker panel. He thought he was bleeding to death, but later discovered it was just wet snow melting and running down his face. Didn't even get hurt. Can't say the same for Dad's Tripower 348 4 speed.
I had thought about building a steel structure inside my roadster to protect a little bit better, kind of like a roll cage under the skin... would not protect in a head on like that Madel A but for day to day driving it could make it safer, and the extra weight would be nominal for my Y-block.
They are all from the archive of the Monroe County Sheriff's Dept in upstate NY, and until recently they were all there to look at (I saved a couple of hundred from there too). But now when I go to the link I have saved it's not there any more, so it looks as if they have deleted it. Amazing pictures though - when you look at the upside-down cars on slick roads with slicker tires, you wonder how anyone survived more than about 5 miles on the roads back then. And plate glass, no padding, no seat belts, no crumple zones, etc., etc., etc. Some of the pictures are really heart-rending...
It really is amazing, then I think back to myself when I was 12-16 I was working on some of the local farms and I rode my bike, but in the winter it was just too cold and too hard to ride in so I drove (as most country kids do) and my car had 4 missmatch bald tires for the first winter I did that, I learned so much from that that tire condition almost never affects me (though I make sure to always have good ones) I imagine people back in the day did the same thing and made do with what they had and were better drivers because of it.
Yes, it must have been a case of the quick and the dead - survival of the fittest. Here's a pic from the Monroe County files that has always made me wince (I have a 37 Terraplane and this is a 36 Hudson)
And what on earth happened to this truck (another Monroe County pic)? And what was it carrying? Whatever it was, it sure caught fire quickly!
If any of you haven't watched it, go to youtube and watch the Signal 30 video. It's the bloody real (reel?) footage of actuall accidents and crying and'or dead victims. It was made by the Ohio Highway Patrol to scare student drivers into driving responsibly. I never figured out how the kid got wrapped around the front right tire inside the wheelwell of the '63 Impala we was riding in? Hmm....
Here's the "vintage car wreck" pics from Ryan's Boston Accidents TJJ Blog: click thumbnails to enlarge
The Jalopy Journal
