Hemi under Glass with Jay Leno

[SSLance]

Most of you have probably seen the wreck Bob Riggle had with Hemi Under Glass and Jay Leno in the passenger seat by now. Someone brought up that it might have been staged...

I for one don't think so...largely because of the lackadaisical use of safety equipment before the crash. If you watch the video closely (especially the in car shots) you can see Jay flopping around inside the car like a fish out of water. He came very close to loosing an arm or even worse. No way they planned that...

Here is the video link.



Look how much he moved around in these 4 seconds below, how much his torso twisted in the seat and the belts, the shoulder harness up against his neck...check out how far his lap belt is drawn up on his stomach before they start. Classic example of why 4 point harnesses are more dangerous than good. Without a 5 point to pull hold the lap belt down when the shoulder harnesses are drawn up tight it pulls the lap belt up into a dangerous area of the body.

Bob didn't move nearly as much, either his lap belt was much tighter or the driver side had a sub belt holding the lap belt down. Although he had a death grip on the steering wheel which might have helped.

A car of that capability without better seats and harnesses in it is just wrong (and dangerous). Pretty sure the seats and belts in my little car would have been much safer in that scenario that those. Many thanks to Ron Sutton and others for bringing safety to the forefront with those of us that drive our cars in anger sometimes.