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

[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.