Fan driving: Buckle up to stay in festive mood

Every year, over a million people die in car traffic accidents on the roads worldwide. Chief causes are drunk-driving and speed, but also wrong road safety behaviour. During the next weeks, there is another danger ahead: Fans celebrating their team's victory at the wheel! What consequences may arise from not sticking to basic rules on road safety is being demonstrated by the Allianz Center for Technology's latest film footage on the dangers of fan driving.

1,27 million people per year die in traffic accidents, leaving about 20 to 50 million of them seriously injured¹. It is a false assumption that only driving with high speed has fatal consequences. Instead, relatively moderate speed can be just as dangerous as people underestimate the risks involved. At a speed of 40 km/h, not being buckled up and leaning out of the window as many fans do in festive mood, can lead to serious injuries in case of accidents.

This is the outcome of the fan driving crash test that the Allianz Center for Technology (AZT) conducted just ahead of the worldwide soccer mania in June and July this year.

With this test, experts of the AZT imitated a fan driving event simulating a crash equivalent to a car to car impact at a speed of 40 km/h. Of the three dummies in the car, only the driver was correctly buckled up. The two others, leaning out of the side and top window, would have suffered from serious injuries to the skull and chest area as well as to the internal organs.

"In such a case, fans would not be secured by the life saver No. 1: the seatbelt! Our crash test dummy that was leaning out of the side window crashed to the pavement, which dramatically increases the possibility of a fatal outcome", explains Christoph Lauterwasser, head of the AZT. "Buckling up is so important - even with fan driving and when in a festive mood! We want everyone to celebrate their team's victory - but safety should always be the first priority!"

Every week, a crash test is being conducted at AZT in Munich to draw conclusions on accident damage As an internationally leading consulting and research entity, the AZT specializes in research on reparation of cars, road safety and damage prevention. Some 30 engineers, scientists and craftsmen closely cooperate to make driving safer for millions of people, underlining one of Allianz prime concerns: safety on the roads around the world. With the AZT Automotive, Allianz has a 40 year history in road safety research, which for example decisively contributed to the introduction of the safety belt in Germany in 1976.

 
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