If you’re my age, you giggle a little every time you read or watch something about child safety, at least child safety as it relates to car travel. I was born in 1965, and about the closest my parents ever came to worrying about my well being in the car was not allowing me to open a door while the vehicle was in motion. Fun fact: I did, in fact open the car door several times while the was in motion. This was back when spanking was still a thing. Good times.
Per the National Institute of Health—which sounds fake, but isn’t—it wasn’t until 1986 that all 50 states had child safety seat laws on the books. And while I applaud the move from a child wellbeing perspective, I morn the passing of kids free roaming in the car, crawling up on—and resting on—the rear parcel shelf, and wrestling with siblings in the rear-seat footwells.
This brings us to the glorious 1956 Nash print ad seen here. While the ad talks a good game about safety, it’s worth noting that there isn’t a seatbelt in sight. That said, seat belts were still optional on cars at the time, if offered at all.
Classic Car Ads: Chevrolet Monte Carlo
But, it’s the reclining-seat bed feature that is most amusing. Seen in the ad is a pair of children, apparently tuckered from a busy day out, sleeping comfortably on the Nash’s patented folding bed. And, not only are mom and dad unbuckled, the kids are also unrestrained. And, before any safety stickler gets too up in arms about this arrangement, take note: No one who read this ad in 1956 thought that anything was wrong here.
And take heart, Nash took special care of rear-seat passengers with a special suspension designed to reduce “back-seat bounce,” which seems pretty considerate of the carmaker.
Per the ad, there are other Nash features that helped insure long-trip comfort, including low-cost air conditioning, and the “Double Safety” welded frame.
It may seem odd to look back on this ad and wonder how parents and carmakers could possibly have allowed children to travel so recklessly. But, in truth, in-car child restraints were simply something the consumers had not yet gotten around to worrying about. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is now investigating rear-seat-passenger crash safety, and one possible outcome of the research may be the implementation of ceiling airbags. Such installations could bring the number of airbags in a given car to ten—more in some cases—which is a pretty long trip from letting the little rascals sleep unrestrained across two seating rows. That’s progress.
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1956 Nash Gallery
(Click below for enlarged images)
Car Safety for Kids, 1950s Style: Put ’Em in a Harness and Give ’Em a Gun!
To be clear, it does appear as if dad is driving, so…vehicle in motion.