Comments on: Seatbelts and Transporting Computers

By: Toby

Toby — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:46:59 +0000

There’s at least one well known case of an unsecured laptop becoming a deadly projectile in a car accident: http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090415/BC_surrey_laptop_accident_090415/20090415/

By: Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:02:58 +0000

I know about the Kensington hole trick because I find Kensington locks annoying enough that when I do spot them in use, I feel compelled to demonstrate their futility destructively.

By: etbe

etbe — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:14:39 +0000

Paul: The Thinkpad T41p I’m using right now appears to have the lock hole as part of the metal frame. My recollection of the other Thinkpads I’ve used is that they appeared similarly designed. I’ve never tried testing this to destruction though. My EeePC 701 seems a lot less sturdy in this regard (thin sheet metal), but as the EeePC is significantly lighter the amount of energy that needs to be dissipated is a lot smaller.

Don: Good point, I really should have thought of that!

Francis: The cabin on a modern car should not be crushed in a rollover, but that is insufficient to protect the occupants. If you don’t have curtain airbags (or if the vehicle rolls a few times so the airbag goes down) then a head impact on the side window can cause death or brain damage. Also there’s lots of things that can go wrong when you get bounced around inside a steel box. As no government anywhere has a routine practice of testing vehicles for rollover safety we can expect manufacturers to keep doing little about it.

I have found that due to seats being soft and angled it is often impossible to prevent a CRT monitor from falling over unless the screen (the center of gravity) is facing down.

As for putting stuff in the boot, unless you have good boxes or cargo nets that is not a good environment to protect the computer gear. Any time you accelerate or brake hard or go around a corner things can slide around. The presence of tools etc in the boot makes things worse. I think we have to assume that any safety advice gets taken after the computers are protected from harm. I know this makes computers seem more important than people. :-#

By: Francis

Francis — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:19:33 +0000

Most passenger car designs since the mid-60s will actually do quite a good job of protecting their occupants in a rollover situation (assuming you’re driving at legal speeds). In any case, objects in the passenger foot well could fly anywhere in sudden deceleration. A cardboard box isn’t necessarily going to keep the disks contained, either.

In the case of CRT monitors, it’s probably the best idea, if you’re going to consider the worst case scenario of the stand snapping but still put it on the back seat, to place the monitor on the seat with the screen facing down, and secure around the whole monitor with the lap belt and over the stand with the sash (over the top of the stand). This will retrain the monitor quite a lot better. Even more so if it’s a manually tightened lap&sash belt.

Overall though, if you’re going to be moving computer peripherals around, it’s best to use the boot. If you have cargo straps and/or nets, use them.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 01:45:28 +0000

@Paul, regarding comment 3: No, not a bug, an intentional feature, present since the day we owned the vehicle. (Not a GM vehicle, either.)

By: Don Marti

Don Marti — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 01:17:15 +0000

The back seat probably has LATCH points for a child seat. Attach the server’s handles to them with a strap or cable? There are also child seat strap attachment points on the package shelf or the back of the rear seat, but they’re only designed to be used in combination with LATCH.