Why lock car doors while driving?

[javasaurus]

When I was taking drivers education classes, one of the "rules" was to lock your car before you put it in drive. But why?


In favor of locking:
Maybe in an area where you stop a lot, a carjacker or other villain might open the door when you stop.

Against locking:
If you are in an accident, and unconcious, rescue workers won't be able to get in.


But is there a real, honest to goodness, not based on hyped up fear, safety reason for locking the doors?

Comments

[rsteachout.livejournal.com]

Perhaps because in the "way back then" time, car doors wouldn't always latch correctly and could potentially open without warning during a turn. That was one of the things that Nader fought to improve (Unsafe at Any Speed). Locking the door added an extra measure of security in keeping the door from flying open. Like many things, the old "lock the door" rule live on beyond the time the reason for its existence ended.

[dawntreader]

i've always wondered if a car was less likely to "spring open" in an accident if the doors were locked. i mean, if you hit hard enough, i don't know if the lock would matter.

[faireraven.livejournal.com]

I know when I was a kid, I used to be afraid I would do something stupid and accidentally open the door, so I'd lock it just to be sure.

Nowadays my car autolocks when I put the car into drive, so I really don't care.

[dawntreader]

as for the rule against, they can just break a window to get in and unlock the door that way! besides, if the car's all mangled up, the door might not open whether it is locked or unlocked.

but i lock it when i'm in unfamiliar places or by myself or when i get out to get gas. this is so that people don't jump in the car or grab my purse or things off the seat or something.

note that the purse scenario actually happened to a friend of mine at a gas station. she was pumping gas on the driver's side. some guy opened up the passenger side, grabbed her purse, and was gone. what really scared her was her little boy was in the back seat so if he'd stolen the car, her boy was in there.

[wilhelmina-d.livejournal.com]

Keeping kids in?

[cozit.livejournal.com]

Mine autolocks now, so it's a moot point, but...

In theory, it is supposed to help keep the latch more secure in the event of an accident.

In practice, I know that if the door had been locked, my sister wouldn't have accidentally fallen out of the car and gotten her knees and a bit more very scraped up when she was little (grabbed onto the door handle as she turned to click her seatbelt in ... and her seatbelt wasn't all the way on yet, just over enough to both keep her from going under the back wheel (by not very much my mom said) and to drag her along the parking lot before my mom could react and stop)

[blueeowyn.livejournal.com]

Which is why my Mom refused to start the car until everyone was in with the seatbelt on when I was growing up (the exception being the old station wagon that needed a bit of time to warm up when it was really cold, but the gear-shift wasn't even touched until we were in and buckled).

In the olden days when the back doors opened the other way (hinge was at the rear of the car), locks were a good thing because having a door start to open, catch the wind and fling open is not a happy thing.

[bellev.livejournal.com]

Seriously - and I'm sadly speaking from experience here - doors don't always catch and they sometimes swing open on sharp turns. Now, if you're wearing your seatbelt - you shouldn't fall out of the car, but your stuff might. And then you might spend a lot of time on the side of the road looking for things you need... in the rain... when you're late... and there's traffic.

So you make sure you close the door firmly, always wear your seatbelt and secure your belongings perfectly - then no, it's probably just a nuisance. Otherwise - I'd recommend locking the door.