Shocking X-ray reveals what can happen if passengers put their feet on the dashboard
A policeman has released a shocking X-ray to highlight the dangers of passengers putting their feet on the dashboard.
An unnamed woman’s hips were crushed during a collision as a result of her feet not being on the floor of the car.
One hip was broken, while the other was dislocated, the Metro reported.
It is unclear when the incident occurred or how the women is recovering. Hip fractures generally require surgery, with some patients needing a replacement, according to the NHS.
Here is an X-ray of horrific injuries sustained to the front seat passenger who had their feet on the dashboard at the time of a collision. If you see your passenger doing it stop driving and show them this. pic.twitter.com/f3XCT8ePvi
— 🏴 Sgt 121 Ian Price 🏴 (@DPGoSafeSkipper) January 22, 2020
Ian Price, sergeant and “go safe casualty reduction lead” for Heddlu Dyfed Powys Police, tweeted the scan.
In a post that has been liked more than 250 times, Mr Price wrote: “Here is an X-ray of horrific injuries sustained to the front seat passenger who had their feet on the dashboard at the time of a collision.
“If you see your passenger doing it stop driving and show them this.”
This is not the first time the dangers of sitting like this have come to light.
READ MORE: Horrifying footage shows moment car plummets from motorway flyover and into crowd of pedestrians
In 2015, Audra Tatum - from Georgia in the US - was sitting in the front passenger seat with one foot on the dashboard.
“My husband always told me, 'You're going to get in a wreck someday, and you're going to break your legs’, she told CBS News.
A collision caused the airbag to balloon, “throwing” the mother-of-three’s foot into her face, breaking her nose.
Her ankle, femur and arm were also fractured.
“Basically my whole right side was broken and it's simply because of my ignorance,” Mrs Tatum said.
After a month of surgeries and physical therapy, she was walking again.
Two years on, she was still unable to stand more than four hours before being left in “tears” from the pain.
READ MORE: Mother posts heartbreaking Facebook photo of two children before they were killed by drink-driver
Another sufferer was Grainne Kealy, who broke “every bone in her face” when a crash caused airbags to push her resting knees towards her head in 2007, Metro reported.
Miss Kealy was left “without a forehead” for two years, before it was eventually replaced with a ceramic prosthetic.
Airbags are typically deployed at a speed of 100-to-220mph, according to CarsDirect.
This can cause “significant damage to a person”.
It is therefore “important to be at least 10 inches away from the airbag when it deploys”
“There have been cases of children being killed by a deploying airbag, so it is vital the airbag be turned off if a child is in the front seat”, CarDirect added.
