A Lesson in Safety

A harrowing car crash helped this family of four realize the true meaning of protection.

It was a beautiful day, recalls Nguyen MH. It was a Sunday and he and his family had spent the morning at Mui Ne beach near Phan Theit and were driving home along the Vo Nguyen Giap road, one of Vietnam’s most modern highways. They were on a winding slope when they slowed down and stopped at a traffic light. Suddenly, MH, who prefers to go by his initials to maintain his privacy, felt a terrifying impact from behind.

Later, MH would learn that a 16-seater bus full of tourists had climbed the same slope at high speed and slammed into the back of their 2015 Forester. The bus had been traveling at around 70 km/h when it slammed into them, pushing the Nguyen family’s car about five meters forward.

Strapped in place

MH quickly slammed on his brakes, which brought the Forester to an immediate stop. The Forester’s brake-assist system and anti-lock braking system kept it from skidding out of control.

“The first thing I did was turn to check on the kids,” says MH, who recalls that both children began wailing after the collision. To his relief, their tears were from being scared by the impact and not because they were injured. “The car had kept my family safe,” he says.

In rear collisions like this, the momentum from the car behind transfers to the vehicle it collides with. The sudden force sent the Nguyen family’s Forester careening forward with a jolt. Luckily, despite the impact, no one was injured.

In the front, the Subaru’s seatbelt pretensioners quickly tightened on impact, preventing both parents from being flung forward. The tiltable and extendable head rests also ensured their heads were adequately supported, preventing them from possible whiplash.

Seated in the back, the children’s three-point seatbelts had worked to hold them firmly in their seats, keeping them from being thrown about in the cabin. As MH puts it, despite the hair-raising sensation of the car “bouncing up,” none of their heads had hit the cabin’s ceiling. “My most vivid impression of the accident,” says MH, “is that my entire family was uninjured.”

“I trust the car - it saved my life.”

Safety from the Inside Out

Because his children were seated in the back of the car, they were nearest to the site of impact. Fortunately, every Subaru is designed to provide 360-degrees of safety. A misshapen trunk and damage to the rear bumper were evidence that the rear of the car had performed its duty as a crumple zone. Instead of collapsing inward, the cabin had kept its shape and kept his kids safe, owing to the Forester’s high-strength steel body construction and Ring-shaped Reinforcement Frame, which had absorbed and dissipated the impact of the collision. Crucially, the cabin maintained its structural integrity, protecting everyone inside.

After the accident, MH decided to stick with his original Forester once it was repaired rather than replace it. The reason? “I trust the car - it saved my life,” he explains. In fact, the Forester is not the only Subaru vehicle the family now owns. His wife, who regularly does the school run, decided to switch to a 2019 XV shortly after the accident.

“You only learn how safe a car is when an accident happens,” he observes. And even though they had to learn the hard way, fortunately for MH and his family, they were driving a Subaru.