Seat Collapse in Accident - Follow Up

[NotARealTruck]

Hey friends. This is a follow-up to my previous post here. I wanted to start a new thread for visibility.

Back story: Owner of a '23 Lariat Tremor. I was on a 2 lane road at a traffic light, waiting to turn left with my signal on and yielding to traffic. Speed limit is 45. My wife was in the passenger seat. We were rear-ended by a Volvo SUV at what was likely the speed limit. The hit was pretty dead on. There were no brake marks and witnesses said there was no indication of braking. Seatbelts were on. Airbags didn't deploy, which seems to be intentional as they wouldn't have done anything.

My seat collapsed fully, and my head rest nearly came off. I went backwards hitting the top/back of my head on the rear seat just below my headrest, breaking the skin. The glossy spot in the below photo is my blood. My wife's seat collapsed, but stopped 2-3 inches short of the rear seat (the photo angle distorts how low it actually was). She was uninjured aside from whiplash.

I've registered a complaint with the NHTSA, as well as located a similar complaint with a '22 that can be found by filtering to "seats." I've not contacted Ford, given their history with this scenario.

I will absolutely never likely won't purchase a Ford again and am actively looking to get rid of my wife's Bronco Sport. My 12 and 20 year old typically ride in the back and the truck was our road trip vehicle. If my 20 year old had been there, their legs would have been crushed and the top of my skull would have gone right into their nose area, causing god knows what kind of damage. My 12 year old would have definitely sustained leg injuries as well. Now we're down a car and having to all ride in a SUV built on the same platform.

This is a known issue, in all vehicles, due to an outdated NHTSA safety standard. You can read about it here and here, and about the act introduced to correct the issue (which I believe has not gone into effect) here. Also a video from CBS here. Wild to think a long-running issue that's killing children isn't a big enough deal for car manufacturers to invest in correcting.

How much do you weigh?

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[Carlitos_92]

How much do you weigh?

Post #6, first page.

 

[SuperDave71]

130k miles on your hybrid mav ?
How has it been reliability wise ?

I’ve actually had two, a 22 XL, and now a 23 XLT, both hybrids. 50k on the 22, 76k on the 23. They’ve been pretty flawless, just recalls.

 

[Motorjunkie]

Hey friends. This is a follow-up to my previous post here. I wanted to start a new thread for visibility.

Back story: Owner of a '23 Lariat Tremor. I was on a 2 lane road at a traffic light, waiting to turn left with my signal on and yielding to traffic. Speed limit is 45. My wife was in the passenger seat. We were rear-ended by a Volvo SUV at what was likely the speed limit. The hit was pretty dead on. There were no brake marks and witnesses said there was no indication of braking. Seatbelts were on. Airbags didn't deploy, which seems to be intentional as they wouldn't have done anything.

My seat collapsed fully, and my head rest nearly came off. I went backwards hitting the top/back of my head on the rear seat just below my headrest, breaking the skin. The glossy spot in the below photo is my blood. My wife's seat collapsed, but stopped 2-3 inches short of the rear seat (the photo angle distorts how low it actually was). She was uninjured aside from whiplash.

I've registered a complaint with the NHTSA, as well as located a similar complaint with a '22 that can be found by filtering to "seats." I've not contacted Ford, given their history with this scenario.

I will absolutely never likely won't purchase a Ford again and am actively looking to get rid of my wife's Bronco Sport. My 12 and 20 year old typically ride in the back and the truck was our road trip vehicle. If my 20 year old had been there, their legs would have been crushed and the top of my skull would have gone right into their nose area, causing god knows what kind of damage. My 12 year old would have definitely sustained leg injuries as well. Now we're down a car and having to all ride in a SUV built on the same platform.

This is a known issue, in all vehicles, due to an outdated NHTSA safety standard. You can read about it here and here, and about the act introduced to correct the issue (which I believe has not gone into effect) here. Also a video from CBS here. Wild to think a long-running issue that's killing children isn't a big enough deal for car manufacturers to invest in correcting.

I am glad you and your wife are OK. Just a thought. If that seat had not given at all, would it be possible that your body would have absorbed more of the impact and hurt you worse? I don't know but maybe it was good that the seats bent. I saw a Mercedes Benz fail in the same way in the eighties. And at least at that time they were considered one of the safest cars on the road.

 

[Glen Baker LLC]

Here's how a seat back collapses and how fast it happens.

 

[MadMike22]

I had a similar issue and ended up needing help sorting things out, especially when insurance got tricky. If you're ever dealing with stuff like this after a crash involving a big rig, reaching out to an 18-wheeler accident lawyer Knoxville really helped me get some answers and push things forward. It made a difference having someone local who knows how to deal with these kinds of cases.

 

[Phimosis]

Here's how a seat back collapses and how fast it happens.

Fantastic video. This illustrates how that seat deformation absorbs the impact energy without bending/breaking the cervical spine. Imagine if the seat stayed upright. His neck would have been bent posteriorly to 90 degrees while his body flew forward and his head stayed behind.

 

[Glen Baker LLC]

Fantastic video. This illustrates how that seat deformation absorbs the impact energy without bending/breaking the cervical spine. Imagine if the seat stayed upright. His neck would have been bent posteriorly to 90 degrees while his body flew forward and his head stayed behind.

Imagine if kids were seated behind him. 🫣

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