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Stretch Limos Research Paper

Decent Essays

A recent article in the New York Times covers an incident of a stretch limousine crash that resulted in the death of four people. What the article really discusses though is the lack of safety features in stretch limos.
A stretch limo is created by taking an ordinary car cutting it in half, and placing plates to extend the roof and floor. What’s missing is the normal “structural cage” of the car, or the pillars running from the ceiling and flooring, which protect passengers. Then the seats are reconfigured in stretch limos. This changes the outcome of side-impact crash.
The pickup truck that struck the limo mentioned above, hit the limo broadside. According to an engineer with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety this couldn’t have been a worse place to hit a limo. “It hit the most vulnerable spot.” At the spot hit there is no structure, according to the engineer.
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After the car has been bought, “the new owner can modify it into a stretch limo without having to show that it is crashworthy.”
Seat Belt Regulations
Additionally, stretch limos are exempted from federal seat belt regulations because of their banquette seating, not forward facing, according to safety experts. For more read an op-ed from the New York Times on the dangers of partying in a stretch limo.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has proposed that large motor coaches be equipped with seatbelts for passengers. However, I was unable to find anything regarding proposals for seatbelts for limos. Why is it that when limos are modified and motor coaches are not? The reason the NHTSA recommends seatbelts for motor coaches is that they reduce the risk of ejection, and about 78% of the fatalities in motor coach rollover crashes are the result of being ejected from the vehicle. Well, ejection can happen in a stretch limo as well.
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