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MG TD TF 1500 - Warning!! Graphic accident photo

Posted on another site..circ 1956.. Just a reminder folks that these cars aren't nearly as safe as our modern autos. Be careful out there this year.


MG LaVerne

Thanks for posting and its a sobering reminder for us all. The only good thing is that accident response technology and medicine have improved dramatically... You have a much better chance now with jaws of life and other advances, of being gotten out quickly and transported to a good medical facility. Survival rates are better than they were 60 years ago...
Geoffrey M Baker

It's not so much the getting crushed that worries me... it's the getting skewered by that solid shaft steering column that concerns me. Someone really should make a retrofit collapsible steering column for these older cars - something like what was in early Spitfires. I know the chance is rare, but it's a bit like all risk... one calculates it by a formula including the chance of occurrence, but factored by the amount of damage when it does ultimately occur! Somehow the thought of being impaled always comes to my mind when I'm motoring in the MG or the Triumph Renown.
Kevin McLemore

A good lap/shoulder belt set up should reduce somewhat the steering column impact.

Tim
TD12524
TW Burchfield

Thanks for posting LaVerne. I had long wondered what a TF crash might look like. The driver looks alive and sure could be in worse shape than he appears to be.

Tom
'54 TF
T Norby

Some interesting writing on the firewall I cannot make out.

This car was fairly new since the image was taken in Oakland, CA around 1956. Note it still has the original Lucas battery and everything under the hood looks nice and clean. The paint is shiny and it seems it had no accessories. Lots of tread left on the original tires. A steel wheeled TF 1250 it appears.


Christopher Couper

Tim, I too dont like the idea of the steering wheel going thru me, but the hit from behind and being fried alive scares hell out of me. there is a lot of gas setting just behind you.
TRM Maine

I was hit from behind a couple of months ago. I can speculate from experience that, if you get hit from behind hard enough to rupture the gas tank, your neck would already have been snapped for lack of a head restraint. I was hit hard enough to only bend both bumper guards and slightly bend the bumper where the overriders were mounted, but received a pretty good whiplash. The spare absorbed quite a bit of the impact, along with the modern front bumper on the car that hit me. Regardless, none of us need to be in the kind of impact that LaVerne pictured above!
Regards, Bobby L.
B. F. Loughridge

I doubt that man survived. He may well be dead in the picture.
D. Sander

Being "T Boned" as in this accident can lead to a fatality in a modern car even if it is fitted with side intrusion bars. The driver may have survived because the hit was on the passenger side, a nasty incident.
G Evans

Considering the size/weight of what looks like the other vehicle that collided with the TF,the resultant damage is not so bad. Hope the chap in the TF was ok.

Noticed the Lucas Flasher Unit was attached to the side of the Toolbox wall with a bolt,not a clip bracket!

The number of accidents involving T types on our modern roads are fairly minimal. Keep up the fight!

Cheers
Rob Grsntham
TF3719("Aramis"),TF9177("Athos").
R GRANTHAM

I know a couple that were rear ended hard enough to rupture the fuel tank in a TC. I seem to remember that due to the height of the other car, a bumper would have been no help. It was a leak, not a full rupture. The fire crew wanted to cut the fuel tank off the car but my friend rushed in with some wrenches and convinced them to let him unbolt it.
Steve Simmons

Lap belt shoulder harness just holds you in position as the steering column is pushed aft through your chest.

Watching myth busters it was interesting how hard they had to work to get a gas tank to torch off Hollywood style.

Regards, tom
tm peterson

Looks like the steering wheel stayed put in this one. I bet he broke the windshield with his head. I have a friend with a TC who always wears an old style Bell bicycle helmet when driving, as he says he is afraid of just that, in a lesser accident that shown here. Notice how much older the police were back then?
N Tesla

Worked in the fire service for a number of years in my youth and my father was a fire department chief for 20+ years.

Can't say I have never seen a car catch fire after an accident, but it is rare.

The steering wheel does scare me a bit. It has a little adjustment, but probably not enough to keep your chest from taking a beating.

T Bone accidents cause a significant number of fatalities. Your heart has two bit ligaments that keep it in place. Unfortunately, they run next to your aorta. Front to back is ok, but side to side and your aorta is severed by one of these tendons. Not a lot side protection or side air bags do to prevent that.
Bruce TD4139 Cunha

All things considered I find it hard to believe anyone would not install a lap/shoulder belt in their MG.

Tim
TD12524
TW Burchfield

It would keep the body with the wreckage.
MG LaVerne

Agreed, I find it foolish to drive on main roads without some sort of restraint. Lap belts at a minimum, shoulder belts if you feel they are a good idea (it's arguable).

It isn't the accidents like the one above that worry me, it's the much more likely lesser accidents. The ones where the car can be driven home but you're driven to the hospital with two shattered kneecaps.
Steve Simmons

Look what Goldie Gardner survived.


KX Bielinski

Quite a few more on this page:
http://www.mgnuts.com/horrors/destruction/
Steve Simmons

The trouble with a shoulder belt in a T-Series is unless it is mounted on a Roll Cage, and higher than the shoulder, the shoulder belt is sure to snap your clavicle and if it is looped, will simply allow you to contact the steering wheel anyway.

Warmly,
dave
Dave Braun

I agree. But then I built a roll cage for about $300 that makes mine probably the safest street-legal MG in the world today. It can be done, it can be safe, and it isn't that expensive.
And yes, it still probably won't save me from killing myself...
Geoffrey M Baker

How is this a T-bone? Looking at the way the metal is folded back surely its a partial head-on?

Matthew.
M Magilton

Scary accident for sure.

Vintage photos are valuable for proper restoration. Although the photo is black and white, note the "controversial" valve cover color and steel wheels are the same silver color.
Frank Cronin

Spot on Matthew.

Noticed the Rocker Cover(silver grey) matches the left hand front wheel colour with no evidence of green!!
As well,could be the carb to carb fuel line goes over the red coloured breather pipe. Jubilee Clips correctly , not wire clips, in place on the breather pipe rubber hose connectors.

Cheers
Rob GranthamTF3719("Aramis"),TF9177("Athos").
R GRANTHAM

Looks like a rear end collision judging by the door profile of the other car. I certainly wouldn't want to be sitting in the rear of what appears to be a large American saloon.
Don TF 4887 'Figaro'
Don Walker

Dave, I'll take a broken clavicle over having my vital organs speared on the steering wheel column any day.

Tim
TD12524
TW Burchfield

It looks like the other car is a 1954 Ford Fordor sedan and it seems the MG may have rear ended the Ford on the left rear corner as the axle of the Ford is seriously displaced forward thus jacking up the rear of the car. Why the rear bumper of the Ford is not more damaged is unclear. Also how the MG ended up in the position shown is unclear. I do hope the ignition and fuel pump were turned off as the broken carb would likely to continue to leak fuel.
John Quilter

Back in the day, Fords were made of sterner stuff.

Jim
James Neel

good point about the color of the valve cover-also note the nice original almond green metallic paint!!
JK Barter

This thread was discussed between 03/01/2016 and 11/01/2016

MG TD TF 1500 index

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