Thread: A good lesson to fit seat belts to our series Landies!

The problem was the car was fitted with suicide doors, hence getting pulled out when she tried to close it. My boss at work knows the people comcerned and he told me about it the other day.

Ivan

Yes an unfortunate outcome for the woman there.
It will also be unfortunate if we are all forced into fitting seat belts because of it.

I have had seat belts in every Series Landrover I have owned, since 1962. Seat belts were being fitted to Series 1 Landrovers as early as the early 1950s, so it is certainly not "non-period".

John

Originally Posted by Ivan

The problem was the car was fitted with suicide doors, hence getting pulled out when she tried to close it. My boss at work knows the people comcerned and he told me about it the other day.

Ivan

Ivan

That may be so in this case, however I recall most of the times the doors of my original 80" came open were in corners when centrifugal forces were pushing your weight against the door.

And

I'm not going to fit doors to the gun buggy.

Diana

My father fitted seatbelts to all the front seats in the S1 in 1966.

In 1968 we were involved in an accident & the S1 ended up on it's side.The accident was with another vehicle in the Valley,for the people that know Brisbane.It was before any traffic lights were installed at the major intersections along Brunswick st.

The three front seat occupants were saved from more serious injuries by the belts.
But us four kids were in the back and ended up with lots of bruses & the side window came out gashing me in the arm.

In those days most vehicles did not have seat belts.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Ivan

That may be so in this case, however I recall most of the times the doors of my original 80" came open were in corners when centrifugal forces were pushing your weight against the door.

And

I'm not going to fit doors to the gun buggy.

Diana

I'm not going to fit doors to the gun buggy.

What about belts then?

Didiman

About 1960 a friend fell out of his sister's boyfriends 1938 Morris 8 tourer when a suicide door self-opened going around a corner in Albion. Three squeezed into a very narrow front seat meant he was leaning on the door. A two door tourer with the longer door for access to the rear seats. Those old wood framed bodies exhibited considerable flex and doors popping open was not an unusual occurrence.

An uncle had a 1933-34 Terraplane tourer and the doors were tied shut with old bridle straps after you got in, otherwise they popped open frequently. He bought it new and drove it until early 1960's when his failing health put him off the road. A rare Straight Eight model, built on the light Essex chassis. They were the GT car of their day. It went to the tip.

From what I have been told, the door was not properly closed. So, she went to open it and slam it closed. Problem was as soon as she opened it the wind took the door and her with it.

Ivan