Thread: Defender Safety

Originally Posted by yyeessno

I trust Defenders implicitly.

This time last year I was heading up the far south coast with my sister as a passenger and had a blowout going into a downhill left hand bend. The drivers side tyre just went pop and the next thing I know I was on the other side of the road about to hit the barrier. I hit it with my front wheel, tearing it off and wedging it underneath the bull bar. The car turned on its side and the barrier cut through the A-pillar and opened the roof like a sardine can. We slid down the barrier for about 10m and then the car just righted itself and we stopped.

I was able to put my head by the gearstick and pull down my sister's head as well and as such we suffered no real injury- she had a cut just above the forehead and I broke some fingers, my nose and lost a few teeth.

Examination at the wreckers showed no damage to the chassis, engine or rear diff. The body was pretty twisted though...

After surviving this, I've no problem carrying loved ones in the car. I now have a 130 dual cab.

Some pictures:

"But for the grace of God" I think the saying goes.

A bit of luck there

that is one smashed up fender, iv seen one that is compleatly bent in the middle of the chassis, i couldent be told how or what the crash was but it looked very smashed up, it kinda makes me think that the defender is actuly stronger then you mite think, sure id rather be in a volvo xc90 in a roll over but they seem to hold up prity well considering

That is one epic crash...
My mum rolled our old 300tdi 110 when back with we still lived in South Africa, when I was about 7 years old. I wasn't in the car but my little brother and sister were, both aged 3 and 5 at the time. Mum was driving home from dropping me off at school on a very slippery dirt road when she came off and rolled the defender 7 times, ending up on its side. No one in the car wore seat belts, because its South Africa and you look like an idiot if you wear one...that's their perception of safety anyway. My brother and sister were in the very back seats and both landed on my mum's neck.

Everyone walked away from the incident, with only minor scratches and bruises. They were very lucky, as they easily could have been thrown out of the car while it rolled. I remember my dad saying how impressed he was on how well off the fender was after the accident, as none of the pillars even collapsed. In fact, the car wasn't even written off, it was fully repaired.

But I guess it is hard to go off just one incident, but if I had children I probably would trust a defender. I have seen some pictures of some badly damaged defenders, and you just wonder how on earth people managed to walk away from that.

Good to see you've stil got the love Jock

Its a very interesting thing about aussie blokes.....as soon as you question their ability to drive well you get worse replies than questioning the integrity of their missus. Check the road toll and accident statistics, its not the vehicle as in the case of the Defender's safety but that of the person driving the vehicle and in this country its majority males. a better poll should be "do you think your kids would be safer in your defender if you did an advanced driver training course'? A defender is 100% safe in any situation with a skilled trained driver. Take away any training and skills add the aussie male ego and its a potential bomb.

Let it go and stop trying to hijack the thread.

Originally Posted by stig0000

... sure id rather be in a volvo xc90 in a roll over

aka Landrover Freelander 3, thanks to Ford, unless safety features were added that were unique to the Volvo

Originally Posted by disco2hse

Let it go and stop trying to hijack the thread.

for what its worth , I'm still on the subject of defender safety, no hijack there at all. other replies have gone off track more than me.