This Is Exactly Why You Shouldn't Rest Your Feet On The Dashboard

It was only last week that we reported on the damage that an exploding airbag can do even to a windscreen, but now here’s a rather sobering outlook on what the safety device can do to a human who decides to rest their feet on the dashboard.

Audra Tatum was a passenger when her husband was driving them both to pick up their kids on a random Wednesday in August two years ago. A car cut in front of them, apparently causing a T-bone crash that fired both the front airbags while the mother of three had her legs crossed, with a foot on the dashboard.

The force of the bag’s expansion pushed her right leg towards her face so hard that her femur, ankle and nose were all almost instantly broken. She needed several operations and couldn’t even attempt to start walking again for a month.

Her husband had repeatedly warned her it was dangerous, but she had always rubbished his opinions, telling him she’d always be able to get her legs down in time. She was wrong. In fairness, she admits her mistake now that two years on she’s still struggling with the injuries. She told CBS News:

“All my life I had my legs crossed and my foot on the dash. My husband always told me, ‘You’re going to get in a wreck someday, and you’re going to break your legs.’

“Basically my whole right side was broken, and it’s simply because of my ignorance. I’m not Superman. I couldn’t put my foot down in time. I can’t do my career as an EMS. I can’t lift patients any more. I can’t stand more than four hours at a time. Once I’m at that four-hour mark I’m in tears.

“I keep telling everybody: you don’t want this life. You don’t want the pain and agony every day.”

All the car’s other occupants escaped the crash with nothing more than minor scrapes. Audra is now using her time to try to change people’s habits in terms of how they choose to sit when they ride shotgun.

Via: CBS News