this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2026
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[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 17 points 3 days ago (2 children)
[–] BrickEater@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago
[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone -4 points 3 days ago (3 children)

How do bench seats kill people?

[–] tyler@programming.dev 9 points 3 days ago (2 children)

They’re much more unsafe than bucket seats. Someone up above in the thread details it more.

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They are common (if not standard) in 2nd and 3rd row seating.

I get a difference in frontal impacts, but a number of people have specifically cited side impacts.

[–] tyler@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Where do you live? I haven't seen a bench seat in the back of any new passenger vehicle for decades.

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So they have bucket / captain seats in the back?

[–] tyler@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

yeah? They're not as aggressive as front seats, but they're still bucket.

Compared to actual bench seats, the difference is massive.

[–] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Interesting, because in vehicles that offer (e.g. 2nd row) captains and these, manufacturers consistently refer to this option as "bench". And I think they would pass as "bench" for most people, and most of the things that they would want out of it, even if they aren't the same as the older style.

Irrespective of nomenclature, these type of seats should be OK in the front row then, yes? Yet I can't think of any new vehicles that have them.

[–] tyler@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's quite hard to see, but some trucks offer this, except the middle seat is also the armrest.

manufacturers consistently refer to this option as “bench”. And I think they would pass as “bench” for most people, and most of the things that they would want out of it, even if they aren’t the same as the older style.

I guess I haven't seen that. The older style was literally just a single piece of padding all the way across. So you would literally slide on turns. Even the slightest bump stops you from moving as much.

Look up the 2026 Suburban. They refer to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd row "bench". Also used for other GM vehicles.

Ford uses it for some of their vehicles (e.g. Explorer) but oddly not for others.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone -1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Interesting how they're unacceptable for cars but the norm for trains and they don't even have seatbelts

[–] tyler@programming.dev 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Trains don’t take 90° turns, nor have other trains hit them at 90° angles.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone -1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Over an 8 year period there were 49 90 degree rail accidents with trucks at crossings in Australia

[–] tyler@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

... with trucks... that weigh hundreds of HUNDREDS of thousands of pounds less than a train (literally just the locomotive weighs 400 THOUSAND pounds/200 short tons, even a land train in australia has a maximum weight of 164 short tons). It's like saying "why don't bicycles have seatbelts when cars are required to". The car seatbelts are for collisions with other things at speed. A bike/car collision at 90 degrees is much more worrisome for the bike than the car.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

There are 25 rail passenger casualties for every 100 collisions with a heavy vehicle at a crossing, of which there are 14609 collisions with trucks in the US database over a ten year period to 2021

[–] tyler@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah you’re gonna need to start quoting your sources.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] tyler@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Nice, you conveniently left out "25 rail passenger or staff" in your claim there. Meaning the person at the very front of the train, that gets smushed with the truck. Even with that, the level of fatalities is 45x lower than road fatalities. All you've done here is prove my point.

                | Total collisions | Rail fatalities | Rail injuries | Road fatalities | Road injuries
Heavy vehicles  | 4,886            | 5               | 1,230         | 228             | 1,143
Light vehicles  | 14,609           | 6               | 504           | 1,542           | 5,249

And fun little quote from your paper:

Fatalities to rail occupants were extremely rare, with 7 collisions (out of 19,495) resulting in 11 rail fatalities. There were 5 separate collisions involving heavy vehicles which each caused one rail fatality, whereas one collision involving a light vehicle resulted in 5 fatalities 20 (another collision with a light vehicle resulted in one fatality).

So 7 collisions out of 19,495 resulted in fatalities. A rate of .03% fatality rate... without seatbelts.

Yeah, I'm gonna reiterate it. All you've done is prove my point.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You have some major ego problems

[–] tyler@programming.dev 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Nice retort. Please come back with some evidence that supports your argument. You are the one claiming that trains need seatbelts.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 0 points 23 hours ago
  1. it's about bench seats

  2. I made no such claim, I don't even have a position, you're arguing against yourself

[–] Ariselas@piefed.ca 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

They often didn't have head rests, so whiplash. They also came from a time when shoulder belts weren't common and seat belts in general were more of a suggestion.

And then there were the days when parents would stuff too many kids into the front of a single cab with a bench seat and put us 2 to a seat belt, and / or one kid on the lap of the driver. But those were also the days of the rear facing seat in the station wagon. I also remember my scout leader packing a group of us into the bed of a pickup, shit was scary but so much fun.

Some do, but at least with my 01 Toyota Tacoma it has a bench seat with headrests and full seat belts, though I guess any hypothetical poor bastard who gets the middle bitch seat is fucked.

Distractions from all the cute girls and good dogs probably.