Classic Car Safety

Many pre-World War II cars were made without one of the basic safety features mandatory on modern cars: seat belts. This is a major issue with classic car safety. Many vintage cars are nearly impossible to bring up to current crash safety standards. And some classic-car owners believe that trying to do so would spoil a vehicle's authenticity.

Federal law holds cars only to the standards that were in effect at the time of the vehicle's manufacture. But many states have come up with their own regulations for classic cars, and often prohibit their use for routine transportation.

"When you're driving to a show, the guy in the modern car thinks you can start, stop and maneuver just the same as he can. But if you have an open car and it flips over, you're in big trouble," said Chuck Conrad, president of the Des Plaines, Ill.-based Classic Car Club of America.

Crashes - especially fatal ones - involving classic cars are rare because the owners are so cautious with them, said Matt Short, executive vice president of the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, Ind.

Owners do most of their driving to and from classic-car shows, conventions and parades. The typical mileage for collector cars is usually less than 1,000 a year, according to McKeel Hagerty, chief executive of Hagerty Collector Car & Boat Insurance in Traverse City. His company is one of the biggest classic-car insurers in the country, with 300,000 clients.

Hagerty said he cannot remember a fatal crash in a vintage car in the 22 years he has been in business. Only 0.2 percent of his customers in any given year file claims over collisions with other cars, he said.

Seat belts were introduced on cars in the early 1960s. In 1968, the federal government made them mandatory. But there is no federal requirement to add them to cars that did not come with them.

And with vehicles built before the 1930s, "you just can't retrofit many of these cars. They will never meet any modern crash test criteria for safety," said Eron Shosteck, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.

After all, Conrad said, "Bolting yourself down to a 70-year-old piece of wood isn't really going to stop anything."

Most states, including Michigan, New York and California, let classic car owners register their vehicles with a "vintage" license, but with restrictions.

In Virginia, a classic-car owner can obtain a standard registration that allows the vehicle to be used like any other model as long as it meets current safety standards for such things as brakes, headlights, turn signals, tires and seat belts. Or, the owner can obtain a vintage license that limits its use to car club events, parades and exhibits as well as occasional pleasure driving no more than 250 miles from home.

In New York, cars registered as historic vehicles are prohibited from day-to-day use, such as commuting to work. In Maryland, registrants must attest that they will not transport people in the cars on highways. And in Alabama, classic car owners can be fined and stripped of their vintage-vehicle registrations for driving their classic cars other than for a show or a parade.