Monday night traveling north on the Hardy Toll Road I once again saw a female motorist in the passenger seat with her feet on the dash. It just baffles me how passengers and drivers do not realize the danger in this. Over the past 47-years of covering news I have seen many crashes where the person in the passenger seat, mostly females are critically injured and even disfigured. Some people find it comfortable the place their feet on the dash. Many drivers also seem to relax with usually their left leg pulled up in the seat. All it takes is seconds and all that can change. A crash at highway speed, rear ending another vehicle at a slow rate as the vehicle in front stops or getting hit from the rear and pushed into the vehicle in front of you. In any of these instances the air bag will deploy. From the time a crash is detected by your onboard computer until the airbag deploys is about sixty milliseconds. When it deploys the explosive charge sets it off at about 220 mph. With your feet on the dash imagine what that would do to you. Years ago on a crash near San Marcos a young woman had her feet on the dash. The driver struck a deer setting off the airbag. When first responders got to her her toes were pointed down in the back seat with one leg on each side of the passenger seat. Almost like someone disfiguring a Barbie doll. Her pelvis and hips were shattered, her left knee was broken and both legs were fractured. Later I found that she was a 19-year-old student returning from a weekend on the river with her boyfriend. She was hospitalized for weeks for multiple surgeries. She then spent over 4-months in rehab and another 2-years going through physical therapy. Another scene on I-45 near Webster was the same situation, traffic came to a stop, Several young women were in the vehicle. The right front passenger had her feet on the dash. They hit the vehicle in front of them. The airbag deployed and put the young ladies knee into her eye socket shattering it and most of her facial bones, severely disfiguring her face. There have been several others. Then there was a driver who was traveling from San Antonio to New Orleans. She had her left leg pulled up and tucked under her when she was involved in a crash. The driver side airbag broke her leg and hip and caused her face to make contact with her knee breaking out several teeth and breaking her nose.
