Crumple Zones and Car Safety: Keeping dogs safe in the car..

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wvvdiup1
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Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2009 2:31 am
Location: Pennsylvania

Crumple Zones and Car Safety: Keeping dogs safe in the car..

Post by wvvdiup1 »

Crumple Zones and Car Safety
Keeping dogs safe in the car can be problematic
JoAnna Lou | May 2, 2011

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Like many others, my dogs ride in the back of my SUV, secure in their crates. I've always been under the impression that my pups were safe in their plastic kennels, although after being rear ended, I wondered if the cargo area of my car wasn't the best place for the dogs. I've since moved one crate to the back seat, but unless I buy a bigger car, I don't have the option of moving all my dogs out of the cargo area.


Recently, I discovered that the cargo area may be even more dangerous that I previously thought. A safety feature called the crumple zone, introduced to cars in the 50s, is designed to absorb the impact in a crash and protect passengers. The crumple zones are often likened to crushing a soda can, sacrificing everything in its path.

The most popular crumple zone locations are in the front and the rear of the car. For anyone who puts their dogs in the back, this is absolutely terrifying.

Next time I buy a car, I will certainly ask the dealer where the crumple zones are in prospective models. In the meantime, I looked online to find out where the crumple zones are in my Honda CR-V, and they are indeed at the front and back of the car.

I know that the hard, plastic kennels are very strong, but in a serious accident they're unlikely to stand up to the crumple zone. It's possible I could put my dogs in seat belts in the back seat, but that industry isn't regulated and most seat belts do not undergo any crash testing. So it's still a dilemma for me.

How do you protect your dogs in the car?
http://www.thebark.com/content/crumple- ... um=twitter
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"Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius." -author unknown
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Mattie
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Re: Crumple Zones and Car Safety: Keeping dogs safe in the car..

Post by Mattie »

That is why I don't like my dogs travelling in the boot of my car and is why once Bonnie has the collar off I will have 3 on the back seat and one in the front passenger seat, all with harnesses on clipped to the seatbelts of course.
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Cassidyyorkie
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Re: Crumple Zones and Car Safety: Keeping dogs safe in the car..

Post by Cassidyyorkie »

Do you know that there's now a special dog crate on the market that is designed to work with car cumble zones? It's called the Mim Variocage and it is made in Sweden. I know it's available in Europe and it just became available in the United States. If you google it - you'll find a lot of info on it.

http://mim.se/?p=productgroup&i=1&l=se

http://www.mightymitedoggear.com/MIM_Va ... Crate.html

There's a video on the 2nd site that shows how the crate was crash tested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AJC6IxO ... r_embedded

Has anyone seen one of these crates?
Cassidyyorkie
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Location: USA

Re: Crumple Zones and Car Safety: Keeping dogs safe in the car..

Post by Cassidyyorkie »

Mattie wrote:That is why I don't like my dogs travelling in the boot of my car and is why once Bonnie has the collar off I will have 3 on the back seat and one in the front passenger seat, all with harnesses on clipped to the seatbelts of course.
There are some REALLY scary videos on the internet showing how dog seatbelts can fail in an accident. IF you go to Youtube - you can find a number of them. The dogs get thrown off the seat and the belts break:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyEZbcF- ... re=related
dontpugme
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Re: Crumple Zones and Car Safety: Keeping dogs safe in the car..

Post by dontpugme »

Our van is equipped with those stow and go seats where instead of removing chairs, they are folded down into the floor of the van to make a flat surface. It is really practical for what my dad has to do during the day.

This picture is obviously not me (or my dad for that matter), but the van is the same and so is the chair set up. Mom and Dad in the front seats. Me in the left middle row seat. The right middle row seat is folded down, so Max's crate (the hard plastic one...we've found it the most practical for us) is on the floor beside me so I can hold it steady in case of a sharp turn. The back three seats are also folded down so our stuff for the beach or camping or whatever goes back there. Our van also has a dvd player where I used to watch my IMOTD dvd.
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I'm trying to think of how we secured him in the car before we had that van, but I can't remember. We got max when I was in second grade and the van when I was in fourth grade. I'm pretty sure we just had him in the crate with the crate on the old van seats.

My mom paid the price of not keeping him contained in the car when she went to pick me up from school, and Max jumped onto my mom's lap and hit some button in the middle of the pick-up line that made the car stop and not turn on. We had to wait for an hour outside of the school (where pets were not allowed...but the principal was out there opening car doors for kids and saw him and let us stay until help arrived). The cool thing was that my little schoolmates wanted to come up and pet him, but they listened to me when I told them not to pull his tail or pet his head. My mom was supervising of course and was the one holding the leash. I didn't realize it then in elementary school, but the socialization with a bunch of kids when he was younger has really made it easier for us years later.
--dontpugme
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