Why You Should Never Put Your Feet on the Dashboard

Feet on Dashboard

One of the fastest slapshots in hockey was clocked at 175 km/h, at the 2020 AHL All-Star Weekend. Good thing then, that hockey players wear pads and helmets to protect themselves from such projectiles. Now, can you imagine getting hit by something clocking in at nearly twice that speed? Believe it or not, most airbags explode – or “deploy”, if you prefer – at a velocity of up to 322 km/h.

Airbags are standard safety equipment in modern vehicles. They deploy in a split second to cushion your head and body in case of a collision. And they work as intended – provided you’re seated correctly. Putting your feet on the dashboard may be comfortable, but that won’t help an airbag protect your life – it may even endanger it.

Safety equipment can’t be dangerous, can it?
“Although airbags are part of the vehicle’s overall safety system, they deploy with significant force, and may be triggered even in a minor collision,” said Lee Alderson, Senior Issues Advisor at the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.

“Drivers and passengers who put their feet on the dashboard while the vehicle is in operation expose themselves to potentially very serious injuries, especially if the airbags should deploy,” said Alderson.

Unusual cases part 5: Don’t put your feet on the dashboard

Feet on Dashboard

The Daily Mail reported a woman in Wales had her feet on the dashboard when the car she was riding in was involved in a motor vehicle crash. When the airbag deployed, she suffered the injuries seen in the x-ray (right).

Her right femur was dislocated and protruding through the skin of her medial thigh. Her left femur was also broken. The police sergeant who released the photo called the injuries “horrific.” Other stories said authorities used the term “life changing.”

In Ireland, a woman had her feet on the dashboard when the car her boyfriend was driving skidded and struck a wall. The airbag pushed her knees back which broke nearly every bone in her face and caused a cerebrospinal fluid leak. A few months after the injury, her infected frontal bone became infected and had to be removed resulting in the what you see.

And wear your seat belt. A ceramic prosthesis was inserted 2 years later. A total of 16 operations were required to repair all of the damage. Bottom line: Don’t put your feet on the dashboard.

X-ray of a feet-on-dash car crash victim

Feet on Dashboard

Feet on Dashboard Accidents

Here is an excellent reminder why it is ALWAYS a terrible idea to ride in a car, or allow anyone to ride in a car with you, with feet on the dash.

Feet on dashboard accident injuries are ALWAYS horrific, ALWAYS life-changing, and ALWAYS end badly…even when everyone else in the accident walks away unscathed.

An X-Ray shared by police in Wales in the U.K. tells the devastating story of what can happen to passengers who ride with their feet up on the dashboard in the event of a crash.

The graphic image shows a broken femur and hip and a drastically dislocated other hip, likely caused by airbags going off during a collision, driving the passenger’s own legs back at her at speeds up to 350 km/h.

Authorities call the injuries “life-changing.”

So is the photo…

Never put your feet on the dashboard of a car

Feet on Dashboard

Whenever Audra Tatum, of Walker County, Georgia used to get into the passenger seat of a car, she’d immediately prop her feet up against the dashboard.
“My husband would tell me, ‘If we have a wreck, it’s going to break your leg,'” Tatum told NewsChannel 9. “I dismissed him.”

But on a quick drive to her parents to pick up their two sons in 2015, another car T-boned Tatum and her husband.

“When the airbag exploded, it pushed my foot up into my face,” Tatum said. The force broke not only her ankle and femur, but also her nose and shoulder.

This wasn’t just a freak accident.

According to a Facebook post by the Chattanooga Fire Department, airbags deploy between 100 and 220 mph.

“If you ride with your feet on the dash and you’re involved in an accident, the airbag may send your knees through your eye sockets,” the post reads.

When she got to the hospital after the crash, the doctors told Tatum that if her feet were on the floor of the car, she “wouldn’t have had any issues whatsoever.” But she still deals with the pain from the accident years later.

Woman Left Without A Forehead After Feet On Dashboard Car Crash

Feet on Dashboard

A woman is speaking out to warn others about the dangers of putting your feet up on the dashboard after she was left without a forehead for two years.

Gráinne Kealy was just 22 when a car she was in skidded on some black ice and hit a wall; her feet were propped up on the dashboard, over the airbag, and were forced back into her face – breaking almost every bone in her face.

Speaking about the crash, which took place on 16 December 2006, Gráinne said: “My boyfriend at the time was driving us through Borris-in-Ossory in County Laois to do a bit of Christmas shopping and I had my feet on the dashboard. It wasn’t something I normally did, but I had new shoes on so I knew I wouldn’t leave dirty marks on the dashboard.

“My feet were on top of the airbag and, I know now, they inflate at 200mph. The force of that meant my knees were sent back into my face really powerfully. I broke nearly every bone in my face. I had a brain leak [called a CSF (Cerebrospinal Fluid)] and I lost two teeth.”

Gráinne and her boyfriend were rushed to hospital where she underwent surgery to fix the leak on her brain and the fractures to her face.

However, just a few months later it was found that Gráinne had an infection in the bone in her forehead, so medics were forced to remove it in 2007. Gráinne then lived without a forehead for two years.

“It took a while to slowly go down,” she explained. “It wasn’t like I suddenly woke up and it was sunken in. It took a while, which probably helped me get used to it.

“For a long time, I was afraid to leave the house. I became a bit of a hermit. I didn’t want to go out and then when I did go out, I would get looks. I bought hats to cover it. I was also worried about banging my head.”

But, in June 2009 surgeons at Beaumont Hospital managed to reconstruct Gráinne’s face by fitting a ceramic forehead.

She said: “It was strange. I’m aware of it, but I can’t really remember what it was like before I had it. Since it was first fitted, I’ve had fat taken from my stomach and injected either side of it to plump it out because you could see the edges.”