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Re: Steering Wheel sizes

To: ShearSAVVY1@aol.com
Subject: Re: Steering Wheel sizes
From: Andrew Weaks <awboat@intelos.net>
Date: Fri, 03 May 2002 18:07:16 -0400
Ugh, I am going to quit driving.

ShearSAVVY1@aol.com wrote:

> Hi everyone,
> I've been following this thread on injuries related to steering wheels and
> wanted to add my 2 cents for what it's worth.  I've worked on a medevac
> helicopter in Conneticut and at University of Maryland's Shock Trauma Center
> in Baltimore, MD.  I have seen the immediate aftermath of many fatal and
> near-fatal MVAs and I endorse the earlier statement which read along the
> lines of "if you've impacted the wheel hard enough to splinter it, you've got
> bigger problems than those splinters."  A rapid deceleration can produce
> forces strong enough to shear the aorta; blunt trauma arising from contact
> with something like the wheel will regularly result in flail chest,
> pneumo/hemothorax and hemopericardium.  In these instances massive internal
> bleeding, or puncture of the lung)s) can culminate in circulatory collapse
> and hemorrhagic shock/respiratory arrest.  The truth of the matter is that if
> you impact the wheel hard enough to deflect it you've met statistical
> criteria which place you in the same fatality risk as if your passenger died,
> you had 3 foot or greater vehicle incursion, etc. - in other words you're
> SOL.  The best thing to do if you want to maximize your chances for survival
> are to fit a steering column which telescopes and collapses under impact -
> not the rigid rod type.
> Regards,
> Bill Shear

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