3 ms·

An aside but i'd like to point out the biggest design difference and why that changed. The doors. They used to have a latch. That resulted in numerous deaths of

An aside but i'd like to point out the biggest design difference and why that changed. The doors. They used to have a latch. That resulted in numerous deaths of children. The modern design using magnetic seals came about because of this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator_death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator_death

walrus01 6y ago
Glow in the dark interior trunk release handles in passenger sedans also exist for this reason.
- philwelch 6y ago
  Similar reasons, at least. There is also usually a way to access the passenger compartment from the trunk. If you like to be prepared for worst case scenarios, get a friend to duct tape your hands together and lock you in the trunk of your car and see if you can escape. Make sure the friend sticks around to rescue you if you fail or cry out for help.
- namdnay 6y ago
  That’s such a weird piece of americana... I wonder if there are studies of how many lives this has saved vs the cost of all car manufacturers adapting their US models to put inner-boot handles
jandrese 6y ago
I was curious just how many kids were killed by the old style refrigerators. I remember when I was a kid TV shows would have special episodes warning of the danger of being locked inside by accident. Unfortunately the articles cited on that Wikipedia page don't have good numbers. There are a handful of anecdotes at the end of the article, but sadly no statistics. I have a feeling this is one of those cases where a small handful of cases got a disproportionate amount of media attention. It doesn't hurt to fix the problem, but it ends up being one of thousands of possible problems that people arbitrarily decided to fixate on.
- OakNinja 6y ago
  From the Wikipedia article: For example, statistics for the 18 months from January 1954 to June 1956 show that 54 children were known to have been trapped in household refrigerators, and that 39 of them died.[6]

walrus01 6y ago

Glow in the dark interior trunk release handles in passenger sedans also exist for this reason.

philwelch 6y ago
Similar reasons, at least. There is also usually a way to access the passenger compartment from the trunk. If you like to be prepared for worst case scenarios, get a friend to duct tape your hands together and lock you in the trunk of your car and see if you can escape. Make sure the friend sticks around to rescue you if you fail or cry out for help.
namdnay 6y ago
That’s such a weird piece of americana... I wonder if there are studies of how many lives this has saved vs the cost of all car manufacturers adapting their US models to put inner-boot handles

jandrese 6y ago

I was curious just how many kids were killed by the old style refrigerators. I remember when I was a kid TV shows would have special episodes warning of the danger of being locked inside by accident. Unfortunately the articles cited on that Wikipedia page don't have good numbers. There are a handful of anecdotes at the end of the article, but sadly no statistics. I have a feeling this is one of those cases where a small handful of cases got a disproportionate amount of media attention. It doesn't hurt to fix the problem, but it ends up being one of thousands of possible problems that people arbitrarily decided to fixate on.

OakNinja 6y ago
From the Wikipedia article: For example, statistics for the 18 months from January 1954 to June 1956 show that 54 children were known to have been trapped in household refrigerators, and that 39 of them died.[6]