Summer weather is here, and that brings with it the annual rash of dash-foot riders. Front-seat passengers - usually younger, and usually female - take advantage of flimsy footwear to ride with their feet up on the dash.
It makes my blood run cold to see this. If you do this, stop it immediately. And parents, if you let your children do this, smarten up - now!
That dash panel contains an airbag, which can deploy in even a minor collision. It goes off with incredible force (it even sounds like a gunshot) and sends out a rock-hard bag at more than 200 km/h.
If your passenger is sitting as in the photo, that bag will send her knees into her face. It will push her thigh bones into her pelvis. The doctor will pick the bones out, and then probably tell you that she will never walk properly again.
People don't realize how stupid it is to ride like this. I blame a few things - the belief that "it won't happen to me," that "we're only going a short distance," or that people underestimate what airbags do, since they're either played for comic effect as fluffy pillows in the movies, or they've only seen them deploying slowly and gently in crash-test films. (They look that way because it's extreme slow-motion; in reality, they deploy so quickly that you can't see it happen.)
Sit up straight. Wear your seatbelt properly. Driving and riding is possibly the most dangerous thing we will ever do, and yet we treat it like it's nothing. Sure, it's cool to put your feet on the dash. It's even cooler to be safe.
