Way back in 1919, when they were first installed in automobiles, windshields were recognized as essential to the safety of the vehicles' passengers. Back then, the passengers of the new "horse-less carriages" needed protection from any airborne articles and the wind generated by 5-8 mile per hour speeds. The windshields in today's vehicles have evolved with the cars and they have become a fundamental part of the vehicle's ability to protect occupants in normal driving and crash situations.

How a windshield protects the vehicle's occupants and what happens when a windshield's strength is compromised by damage

Every Day
In every-day driving conditions, drivers can expect to be bombarded by various kinds of road debris. In response to this, windshields are made of laminate glass (two pieces of glass that sandwich a piece of plastic laminate) and they are carefully engineered to have a small amount of "give" in them, which is called tensile strength. This allows rocks, gravel, and who knows what else to bounce off your windshield, rather than coming straight through or shattering the entire piece of glass.

If windshields already have cracks or chips in them, they can lose up to 70% of their tensile strength. If another piece of flying debris hits the windshield, it does not have the strength required by the manufacturer to keep vehicle passengers safe.

During A Crash
That's only the beginning of the windshield's role as a safety component, however. As cars have become much more streamlined in design and the use of complete metal has been abandoned, in most cases, the windshield has become critical in the vehicle's overall ability to protect its passengers in crashes. First of all, it is a federal safety standard that windshields are supposed to keep passengers inside the car in the event of a crash. The driver and all passengers should always have seatbelts on, but if they don't, it becomes the windshield's job to keep them inside the vehicle.

During crash circumstances, windshields also play a vital role in the structural integrity of the vehicle. In front-end crashes the windshield provides stiffness and rigidity, which keep the car from crushing on impact, and protects the bodies of the passengers. In rollover crashes the windshield is responsible for reinforcing the roof structure and keeping the roof from caving in on the passengers.

If a windshield's strength is in a weakened state because of chips or cracks, it does not have the ability to keep passengers inside, or to withstand the crushing forces an automobile experiences during a crash. Industry experts estimate that between 18 and 22% of a vehicle's structural integrity is provided by the windshield and in roll-over accidents, the windshield makes up as much as 70% of the total structural integrity of the vehicle. Do you want to compromise that much of your vehicle's strength because of a windshield crack or chip?

When The Airbags Deploy
In-dash airbags are designed to explode against the windshield and use it as a "backstop" as they deploy. The airbags impact the windshield at speeds of 150-200 miles per hour, so needless to say, it is critical that the windshield's strength has not been compromised for the airbag to work properly.

When the airbag deploys, weakened spots in the windshield make it hard to withstand the blow of the airbag. If the windshield has the slightest damage, or is not sealed properly, the airbag can actually break through the glass or cause the windshield to pop out of the car completely. When this happens, the airbag becomes useless, and the passenger is still in danger of hitting the dash, or worse, being ejected from the car.

So you see, as stated by ABC News in a February 25, 2000 program, "A windshield can be as important to auto safety as seat belts, air bags, and anti-lock brakes."

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