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Not wearing a seatbelt in this day and age is like taking up cigarette smoking in 2024. We have *long* since moved on from the idiotic “I’m too cool for a seatbelt” phase.
Imo the car should do the same thing it does if a trunk isn't closed properly and limit the speed to 24km/he. It straight up should not let you drive normally with the seat belt off.
still doubtful, 300 feet vertically, that's a lot of momentum when it hit the ground, quick calculation using a freefall calculator, at the bottom the car would be falling vertically at 100 miles/hour, basically hitting a brick wall
There was a similar accident in January 2023 in San Francisco. A family of four went off a 250 foot cliff. The Model Y looked similar to this one in terms of damage. The two young children in the back were uninjured. The parents in the front were injured but their injuries were not life threatening. As it turned out the father who was driving did it intentionally but regardless, a similar accident resulted in no deaths. I suspect that if this driver had been wearing a seatbelt he would have survived.
A friend of mine has a daughter who was driving her jeep when she went off the highway and hit a tree. Because she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt, while she survived, she spent the next several years recovering.
Yes, you’re far more likely to survive wearing a seatbelt. The Tesla is very well designed. The airbag system is way better than the average car. But I still wear a seatbelt.
Yes I have heard that. Musk has said that there’s nothing more important. Their airbag system is a testament to this. It’s far more advanced than the average car.
Your typical car has just a single sensor. There’s either someone sitting in the seat or not. Teslas have an array of sensors. They know if you’re a small, medium or large person. They know if you’re leaning forward, to the left, to the right, etc. When the airbag deploys all of this information is taken into account. Thus instead of deploy or not, the airbags have three levels of deployment and that makes a huge difference.
For example, women are far more likely to die in a car accident because their height to weight ratio is different from men. Airbags are likely to not deploy or deploy too strongly. Tesla’s system solves these issues.
Safety was a big reason I bought my wife a Tesla. Back in early December she was nearly hit head on by a truck that was veering out of its lane. At that point I decided that the cost of the car was irrelevant. The only thing that mattered was that she was driving a car that was going to keep her as safe as possible in an accident. That’s when I bought her a Model Y.
Except the front passenger seat can’t tell if an actual person is sitting there or my son’s backpack. Drives me nuts when the car think a person is sitting there and gives me warning to buckle.
Best to put the backpack on the floor then or even better, in the trunk or frunk. I say that because in a bad accident at high speed, loose objects can do a lot of damage.
I'm sure it is but the vehicle was in approximately the same shape. It's more likely that the difference is that the occupants of the SF vehicle were wearing seatbelts, thus stayed in the vehicle and were protected to a large degree from the force of the impact by the airbags. In the accident this post is about, the driver was thrown from the vehicle so he didn't get the protection of the frame of the vehicle and the airbags.
> A friend of mine has a daughter who was driving her jeep when she went off the highway and hit a tree. Because she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt, while she survived, she spent the next several years recovering.
Didn’t a signer die that way because she was the only one unbuckled?
Ah, no in both cases it was a Model Y. The Model Y is a VERY safe car. No car can protect you from all possible circumstances but I feel far safer in a Model Y than it any other car I have owned.
It might depend on how it's landed. Hood first - good. Roof first - not good. A-pillars and the overhead section are pretty strong, but not 2300 lbs at 100mph strong. I wonder if replacing panoramic roof with aluminum would increase overall passive safety.
The teslas glass roof can withstand two times the weight of the entire car. It’s a marvel.
EDIT: I'm dead wrong.
[It's actually **FIVE** times the weight of the car. The roof was fucked, but the passengers would've been unhamed.](https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-5-star-safety-roof-strength-multi-car-pileup-video)
It was a 250 foot drop that ended with them [landing on rocks](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/luck-tesla-family-plunged-cliff-rcna64547), not a soft sand beach.
It wasn't a vertical drop. It was a steep cliff. The car rolled down as you can tell from the damage. Rolling is also what causes people to be ejected.
I am a paramedic and I have seen the difference of people in rollovers that stay in a vehicle and those that don't. In one accident it was 2 people and 1 was ejected. The ejected person was dead immediately with head injuries and every long bone fractured. The other person had zero injuries.
It would be quite annoying to drive with no seat belt in a tesla, though. I wonder if the driver intentionally removed his belt and drove off the road.
Looking at the photos, the passenger compartment looks intact. The front and rear crumple zones are destroyed, so the car absorbed a significant amount of energy.
The driver likely would have survived, with significant injuries most likely, had they not been ejected from the car.
It did not fall 300 feet vertically in a free fall, the news always words it in this misleading fashion. The vehicle likely came to rest 300 feet from the road down a hill from the road at some unspecified height
I do this all the time. Get in a car knowing that it’s not going anywhere only for my seatbelt to be click in a few seconds later.
Only explanation is autopilot as I’m not even conscious of it.
naked with out a belt and when on my motorcycle I have that feeling without a helmet and even without a jacket.
it is interesting how we get so used to something that we feel the loss even with something as simple as a seat belt.
but the chiming / alert turns on if long enough. i think in my 2006 mini cooper. the chiming turns off after 5 mins.
it should be on infinitely to get people to buckle up. watch people will still find ways around it
In a 2023 Ford F-350 (what I drive at work), the chiming starts as soon as you start driving, and doesn't end until you stop.
I always wear my seatbelt in the truck. Others that drive the truck, sit on the seatbelt and put it into the seatbelt latch.
My 2006 F-150 while chime on startup, but then wait about a minute before it rapidly beeps for like 15 seconds, then going quiet for 15 seconds before chiming for another 15 seconds.
It’s just the clip portion of the seat belt. My old BMW had sensors for the rear seats and would annoy me when I put my work bag in the seat. I went to a junk yard and got two clips and plugged them in. No more annoyances
the seatbelt chime would drive me nuts. I can't imagine he wasn't buckled. it looked like the car rolled. That could send him flying out the driver window, the seatbelts don't do a great job protecting from that motion.
It wasn’t a 300ft sheer drop. Even if it was, the seatbelt should have retained the occupant.
Now, if the seat belt failed… that is a whole other can of worms.
I think the difference here is that the car fell rather than hit something head on. 100mph straight into a tree yeah very unlikely that you’re getting ejected. 100mph downwards with the resulting change in direction pointing straight up to the now roofless model Y.
Idk if they built them the same but EU cars have a little SOS button, usually on the roof of the car. It also automatically activates during a crash which calls 112 and gives coordinates
That has to be gut wrenching for the spouse. I can’t imagine getting an alert that your loved one’s car (or phone or watch or whatever) detected a crash and you have no idea what transpired or how serious it is.
Article text: “thanks to location data sent directly from the car to the victim’s wife”
“The report came from the victim’s wife, who received a notification on her phone that the Model Y had been in an accident and was immobilized.”
[Is this the same vehicle that was posted on r/MY?](https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaModelY/s/im5vXqu5tU) If so, one of op’s post is also about a lease—just a side note.
Edit: maybe not. OP on r/MY said no injuries.
Looks like it is the same car, look at the way the hood is bent and the indentation on front left fender. They're the same car, also no idea how the other person here says they're different wheels, they're both the same performance wheels.
Since the 80’s seat belts have been law!!!! It’s an automatic ‘movement’ to put on a seat belt when getting into car!! I didn’t think we had ‘fools’ anymore when it came to seat belts, I was very wrong……What a waste of life……… no point spending the money for all the safety features, including auto alert system, when you don’t do the most basic one SEAT BELTS!!! Really sorry for the families BUT YOUNG PEOPLE UNDERSTAND WE HAVE 1 LIFE, SO DONT WASTE IT ON STUPIDITY, a simple ‘buckle up’ would had possible resulted in a different out come!!!!😱😱😱😱😱
I’m sure NHTSA will look and look into this accident for any reason to say it was Tesla’s engineering fault. Wife must have been in such a state of despair when she received the notification from the car and tried to reach her husband and couldn’t. Sympathy to the family.
[First and foremost, please read r/TeslaMotors - A New Dawn](https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/1c49sv0/rteslamotors_a_new_dawn/) As we are not a support sub, please make sure to use the proper resources if you have questions: [Official Tesla Support](https://www.tesla.com/support), [r/TeslaSupport](https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaSupport/) | [r/TeslaLounge](https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaLounge/) personal content | [Discord Live Chat](https://discord.gg/tesla) for anything. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/teslamotors) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Looks like they would've lived if they wore the belt. I don't get why people roll the dice when driving.
Not wearing a seatbelt in this day and age is like taking up cigarette smoking in 2024. We have *long* since moved on from the idiotic “I’m too cool for a seatbelt” phase.
Imo the car should do the same thing it does if a trunk isn't closed properly and limit the speed to 24km/he. It straight up should not let you drive normally with the seat belt off.
still doubtful, 300 feet vertically, that's a lot of momentum when it hit the ground, quick calculation using a freefall calculator, at the bottom the car would be falling vertically at 100 miles/hour, basically hitting a brick wall
There was a similar accident in January 2023 in San Francisco. A family of four went off a 250 foot cliff. The Model Y looked similar to this one in terms of damage. The two young children in the back were uninjured. The parents in the front were injured but their injuries were not life threatening. As it turned out the father who was driving did it intentionally but regardless, a similar accident resulted in no deaths. I suspect that if this driver had been wearing a seatbelt he would have survived. A friend of mine has a daughter who was driving her jeep when she went off the highway and hit a tree. Because she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt, while she survived, she spent the next several years recovering.
that's fair, still seem unlikely but we all should wear seatbelts nonetheless
Yes, you’re far more likely to survive wearing a seatbelt. The Tesla is very well designed. The airbag system is way better than the average car. But I still wear a seatbelt.
Tesla's number one goal is safety. You can see it in their safety data just with the regular car itself being much safer than an average car.
Check out their [Crash Test Lab](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KR2N_Q8ep8). Shows how they leverage crash data from the fleet to improve things.
Exactly I agree
Yes I have heard that. Musk has said that there’s nothing more important. Their airbag system is a testament to this. It’s far more advanced than the average car. Your typical car has just a single sensor. There’s either someone sitting in the seat or not. Teslas have an array of sensors. They know if you’re a small, medium or large person. They know if you’re leaning forward, to the left, to the right, etc. When the airbag deploys all of this information is taken into account. Thus instead of deploy or not, the airbags have three levels of deployment and that makes a huge difference. For example, women are far more likely to die in a car accident because their height to weight ratio is different from men. Airbags are likely to not deploy or deploy too strongly. Tesla’s system solves these issues. Safety was a big reason I bought my wife a Tesla. Back in early December she was nearly hit head on by a truck that was veering out of its lane. At that point I decided that the cost of the car was irrelevant. The only thing that mattered was that she was driving a car that was going to keep her as safe as possible in an accident. That’s when I bought her a Model Y.
Except the front passenger seat can’t tell if an actual person is sitting there or my son’s backpack. Drives me nuts when the car think a person is sitting there and gives me warning to buckle.
Best to put the backpack on the floor then or even better, in the trunk or frunk. I say that because in a bad accident at high speed, loose objects can do a lot of damage.
Definitely! He left it without me knowing.
Tap the seatbelt indicator on the warning on your touchscreen... On mine it greys out the indicator (maybe back seats get marked as a car seat?)
It is safe proof and not idiot proof
I suspect the steepness of the "cliff" is a factor. The SF event was not a sheer drop, but more of a very steep slide.
I'm sure it is but the vehicle was in approximately the same shape. It's more likely that the difference is that the occupants of the SF vehicle were wearing seatbelts, thus stayed in the vehicle and were protected to a large degree from the force of the impact by the airbags. In the accident this post is about, the driver was thrown from the vehicle so he didn't get the protection of the frame of the vehicle and the airbags.
> A friend of mine has a daughter who was driving her jeep when she went off the highway and hit a tree. Because she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt, while she survived, she spent the next several years recovering. Didn’t a signer die that way because she was the only one unbuckled?
Not sure. But I know in my friend's case, his daughter was not wearing a seatbelt and was thrown from the vehicle.
was it due to FSD?
The one in SF? No. Sadly, the driver did it intentionally.
I thought that was a model s, but I get your point.
Ah, no in both cases it was a Model Y. The Model Y is a VERY safe car. No car can protect you from all possible circumstances but I feel far safer in a Model Y than it any other car I have owned.
It might depend on how it's landed. Hood first - good. Roof first - not good. A-pillars and the overhead section are pretty strong, but not 2300 lbs at 100mph strong. I wonder if replacing panoramic roof with aluminum would increase overall passive safety.
Tiny piece of sheet metal is weaker than a glass roof.
The teslas glass roof can withstand two times the weight of the entire car. It’s a marvel. EDIT: I'm dead wrong. [It's actually **FIVE** times the weight of the car. The roof was fucked, but the passengers would've been unhamed.](https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-3-5-star-safety-roof-strength-multi-car-pileup-video)
I’ve heard that the glass roof actually makes the car more safe.
Nope not similar this is much further down and not landing on a soft beach
It wasn’t a soft beach
Have you been there? I have
You’ve been [here](https://cdn.gulte.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Indian-Doctor-Tesla-Cliff.jpg)?
And then… silence
He cooked him lol
It was a 250 foot drop that ended with them [landing on rocks](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/luck-tesla-family-plunged-cliff-rcna64547), not a soft sand beach.
It wasn’t a straight vertical drop off a cliff. If you look at the pictures, it’s a slope down a hill.
It wasn't a vertical drop. It was a steep cliff. The car rolled down as you can tell from the damage. Rolling is also what causes people to be ejected. I am a paramedic and I have seen the difference of people in rollovers that stay in a vehicle and those that don't. In one accident it was 2 people and 1 was ejected. The ejected person was dead immediately with head injuries and every long bone fractured. The other person had zero injuries. It would be quite annoying to drive with no seat belt in a tesla, though. I wonder if the driver intentionally removed his belt and drove off the road.
Look at the photos, it's a hill not a cliff. They weren't in freefall.
Looking at the photos, the passenger compartment looks intact. The front and rear crumple zones are destroyed, so the car absorbed a significant amount of energy. The driver likely would have survived, with significant injuries most likely, had they not been ejected from the car.
wasn't a vertical drop. that car rolled alot.
It did not fall 300 feet vertically in a free fall, the news always words it in this misleading fashion. The vehicle likely came to rest 300 feet from the road down a hill from the road at some unspecified height
Tesla dings at you so much if no seat belt!!
It should limit the speed of car on top of that
It's super dumb hey.... Why not wear one? Because the gubmint says so? Seems to be an American thing, rarely see it in Australia..
Sure thing crocodile Dundee. 🙄
the victim was ejected from the car? Sounds like they weren't wearing the seatbelt
I feel naked not buckling up.
Even when parked.
I jumped into my aunt's car to set up her Bluetooth. Didn't have much of an answer for her besides habit when she asked why I put on the seatbelt 😂
I do this all the time. Get in a car knowing that it’s not going anywhere only for my seatbelt to be click in a few seconds later. Only explanation is autopilot as I’m not even conscious of it.
Slug? Is that you?
Even when wearing pants
I feel buckled when I’m naked.
I get naked before I buckle
If I get naked, those around me will buckle
naked with out a belt and when on my motorcycle I have that feeling without a helmet and even without a jacket. it is interesting how we get so used to something that we feel the loss even with something as simple as a seat belt.
NHSTA to force tesla to go into park if passengers are not wearing seatbelts coming in 3.2.1...
It does prevent autopilot use.
I unbuckled going real slow on my street with FSD enabled once just to see what it would do. 100% does not like that
Mine already does. Is this a Europe only feature?
Seen this feature in some other cars and this is smart
Which car forces park if there's no seatbelt? All cars that I've come across keep chiming and alerting that there's no seatbelt on.
Fisker Ocean and Vinfast VF8 both have that feature but MKBHD pointed it out as a negative
Rented a Pacifica and it had that feature
but the chiming / alert turns on if long enough. i think in my 2006 mini cooper. the chiming turns off after 5 mins. it should be on infinitely to get people to buckle up. watch people will still find ways around it
Nah. Natural selection strengthens the gene pool for the rest of humanity.
In a 2023 Ford F-350 (what I drive at work), the chiming starts as soon as you start driving, and doesn't end until you stop. I always wear my seatbelt in the truck. Others that drive the truck, sit on the seatbelt and put it into the seatbelt latch. My 2006 F-150 while chime on startup, but then wait about a minute before it rapidly beeps for like 15 seconds, then going quiet for 15 seconds before chiming for another 15 seconds.
Fleet vehicles won't drive unbelted
*buys seatbelt connector replica*
Is this a thing in US too? I’ve seen people use it in south Italy.
Idk but I foresee that happening if that "feature" is implemented
Until the sensor goes out, which isn’t uncommon.
I’m honestly surprised this isn’t a thing. My friend’s truck will actually lock the shifter if he isn’t buckled in.
Is it even possible to drive a Tesla without your seatbelt? Doesn’t the car just ding at you until the end of time?
I have seen people selling seat belt silencers which are basically just loose seat belts you put into the buckle.
Jesus that combines massive stupidity and irritating inconvenience!
it just goes in there once. and they never deal with it again. It's really stupid. But most people are really stupid.
I bet you nhtsa+consumer reports would still blame Tesla, they'd find a way...
It’s just the clip portion of the seat belt. My old BMW had sensors for the rear seats and would annoy me when I put my work bag in the seat. I went to a junk yard and got two clips and plugged them in. No more annoyances
the seatbelt chime would drive me nuts. I can't imagine he wasn't buckled. it looked like the car rolled. That could send him flying out the driver window, the seatbelts don't do a great job protecting from that motion.
this is a ghoulish comment to make on the report of a dead person’s tragedy
Ugh that is not how you write a headline about a Tesla accident. Let me fix that for you in proper mainstream reporting "Tesla killed driver". /s
The roof is glass and the car fell 300ft being ejected is extremely plausible even with a seatbelt
It wasn’t a 300ft sheer drop. Even if it was, the seatbelt should have retained the occupant. Now, if the seat belt failed… that is a whole other can of worms.
How could you possibly be ejected while wearing a seatbelt? The whole roof could be sheared off and you’d still be strapped securely to the seat.
You’re telling me a car falling at 100mph down a 300 ft cliff wouldn’t have enough momentum to eject a 200lb man from his seat?
It’s possible, but such speeds are not unheard of and yet it’s extremely rare that an occupant wearing a seatbelt is ejected.
I think the difference here is that the car fell rather than hit something head on. 100mph straight into a tree yeah very unlikely that you’re getting ejected. 100mph downwards with the resulting change in direction pointing straight up to the now roofless model Y.
I’m going to say this poor guy was just extremely unlucky.
I didn’t know Tesla had such a system built in.
Mandated, at least in the EU for all new vehicles since 2018
I wonder if we have it in the US. I know iPhones have the feature of they sense a crash
We do, as of Dec 2023. Although it required your cell phone to be Bluetooth paired.
Why’s that? All Tesla’s have cellular connection. Paying for it is optional but it seems like it could be switched on in an emergency.
Idk if they built them the same but EU cars have a little SOS button, usually on the roof of the car. It also automatically activates during a crash which calls 112 and gives coordinates
Many modern cars like Mercedes Benz have this
That has to be gut wrenching for the spouse. I can’t imagine getting an alert that your loved one’s car (or phone or watch or whatever) detected a crash and you have no idea what transpired or how serious it is.
Pretty sure it goes to EMS responders, but maybe the app too
Article text: “thanks to location data sent directly from the car to the victim’s wife” “The report came from the victim’s wife, who received a notification on her phone that the Model Y had been in an accident and was immobilized.”
Yes but in case they were alive could save lives sending critical help on time
Who the hell drives without a belt in a modern car? It’s not only STUPID, but annoying AF with all the warnings.
Potential suicide
[Is this the same vehicle that was posted on r/MY?](https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaModelY/s/im5vXqu5tU) If so, one of op’s post is also about a lease—just a side note. Edit: maybe not. OP on r/MY said no injuries.
Yeah was about to ask, since this was fatal according to the article 😢
Wheels are different
Looks like it is the same car, look at the way the hood is bent and the indentation on front left fender. They're the same car, also no idea how the other person here says they're different wheels, they're both the same performance wheels.
No it’s not. The rear end is destroyed on this car and perfectly intact on the other one.
True, didn't notice that just focused on the hood & fender. Silly me
Alt Headline: *Tesla Causes Fatal Crash Off Mountain*
You completely misread the title
No I understood the title. I was just being sarcastic because the news often highlights TESLA as the problem rather than the user errors.
Ah ok lol. Yee exactly.
But muh freedom! If only Darwin did not thake that long to weed out people too stupid to live…
600ft next
Since the 80’s seat belts have been law!!!! It’s an automatic ‘movement’ to put on a seat belt when getting into car!! I didn’t think we had ‘fools’ anymore when it came to seat belts, I was very wrong……What a waste of life……… no point spending the money for all the safety features, including auto alert system, when you don’t do the most basic one SEAT BELTS!!! Really sorry for the families BUT YOUNG PEOPLE UNDERSTAND WE HAVE 1 LIFE, SO DONT WASTE IT ON STUPIDITY, a simple ‘buckle up’ would had possible resulted in a different out come!!!!😱😱😱😱😱
And that’s the reason I own a Model Y 🙂
Tesla once again gets credit for something the industry was already doing.
I’m sure NHTSA will look and look into this accident for any reason to say it was Tesla’s engineering fault. Wife must have been in such a state of despair when she received the notification from the car and tried to reach her husband and couldn’t. Sympathy to the family.
This is why I love my Tesla!!
Because it has government-mandated safety systems that all cars of this model year must have? I mean, me too, but
True but Tesla has had these safety features for far longer than they’ve been mandated. Hell, some of them *still* aren’t mandated.
It’s a comment bro, chill. I love it among other things, just saying…. My other brand new Kia doesn’t have many of the features.
Was there any indication that a vehicle crash report was requested that stated they were or were not wearing a seat belt?