Thread: Accident in Defender

Just to put it into perspective - it is impossible to find a statistical correlation between the safety features of a car and the rate of driver/passenger injury or death. The major reason for this is that the overwhelming factor is the driver, so that all other factors, including the vehicle are of secondary importance.

John

Originally Posted by inside

Check here Defender Safety

Yeah - that's one of the posts I was thinking of. Car was a mess, but they walked away without much damage (which surprised me greatly!). I reckon they were very lucky.

If you are in a Defender and you are hit from the rear or the front atleast it is unlikely you will be crushed in the cab by the body crumpling around you.
Side impacts are another matter entirely, the human brain doesnt take side ways impacts very well at all.
The chart posted earlier is interesting only a very small number of crashes in Defenders result in injury, but there are not many on the road really.
When i had my D2 i didnt feel half as safe in it as i do in the P38.
Side air bags should ease your concerns if fitted to any of the Land Rover range.
I know from experience that hitting a solid object in a 2a is not a good idea, 25 years ago i drove into a trench in long grass at about 35km/hr, yep i hit the steering wheel pretty hard as a teenager it hurt a lot i wouldnt want to do it now, i would most likely end up in hospital.

Originally Posted by spudboy

I've seen a few pictures where they've gone shiny side up, .

I usually try to keep my cars shiny side up...

The only statistics I've seen about Defender safety put it close to the top of the safe list, although I suspect, as John mentioned, it's a matter of the type of driver, and of the use of the vehicle.

After seven or so years on AULRO I've seen a lot of pictures of crashes, and a lot of talk about possible weakness in a rollover. None of the reported crashes here have had resulted in significant injury - from what I recall - and there were five or six rollovers in that list. The only side impacts I recall are incidents with trees and no injury to passengers.

Interesting is that the vast majority of accidents reported here involving scratches to the Defender and destruction to the other vehicle - Those were mostly front or rear impacts.

Originally Posted by inside

My main worry with the Defender is swerving to avoid an accident, it'd fall over pretty quickly I'd imagine.

This is only somewhat true from my own experience.

I was going down the HWY at 100Km/h and cement sheets from a truck in front started flying off the tray!

I had to take evasive action and swerved to avoid them. Thinking back I remember saying to myself much earlier on that the Defender would probably rollover if ever I had to swerve to avoid anything but in this situation it didn't!

So I am not saying it couldn't happen or that it is the best handling car in the world but it sure surprised me.

In regards to side impact see a post from Michael2 about being hit from a Toyota Land Cruiser. He might pipe in when he sees this post.

I think a roll over would be my only concern, even with my D2.

One thing I have noticed however is the presence a large Land Rover has. When I drive the D2 I very rarely have problems with cars cutting me off or sitting extremely close to me. It is like there is an invisible buffer to the other vehicles.

But then when I drive my sedan, I would get cut off at least once a day driving to and from work and regularly have cars sitting only a couple of metres behind me.

Still does not stop you having an impact on the side, but I definetely feel safer in my Land Rover.

Has my first crash in my 110 defender not to long a go, I was at fault pulled out in front of this guy. He was coming from the right doing about 60k to 70k and hit the drivers side at about the centre pillar. The rock slider took all the brunt of it and a ( and i mean ) little damage to the, door rock slider was fine. Then I went and looked at his car it was a right off .Not one of my best days, all people involved were ok. I was surprised how little damage the defender had in comparison to the other car