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Children and safety in Jeep JL

rallydefault

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Yea, lots of people around me take the front doors off but leave the back on.

I've also seen/heard about the Wrangler actually having pretty good crash statistics in terms of injury rates, mortality rates, at-fault percentages, etc. Not to pat ourselves on the back, but I think, at least traditionally, that people who buy Wranglers just tend to be pretty good drivers. At least decades ago, if you were buying a Wrangler, you knew what you were signing up for and you probably knew your way around a vehicle a bit more than most people (at least in my area - you don't buy a Wrangler to just drive it around on streets - you buy a Wrangler to go muddin and off roading).

Now, that may be changing a bit more with the JK and JL, and I know I'm being super broad and assuming a lot, but you have to admit that certain people tend to buy certain cars. There are always exceptions, of course, but trends are real for a reason.
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mgroeger

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When I bought my JLU Rubicon, I posted a YouTube video of how I inserted three child seats in the back seat. This morning someone posted that I was placing my children in a death trap. The post was worded poorly which makes me suspect it was drafted by a person that speaks English as a second language or perhaps an internet troll.

I suspect the post was due to the poor NCAP safety rating. As a parent, a safety rating is important to me. Please let me give potential JL buyers my two cents.

Many of us have children and love taking our children on off road adventures. I’ve owned 30 Jeeps and take my children on local mountain trails, here in Colorado. I grew up in Southern California and spent weekends camping and off roading in the desert. It was a great childhood. I want my children to have similar experiences.

I’m a family physician and served as a battalion surgeon in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’ve cared for trauma related injuries. Since the NCAT rating came out, I considered getting a different trail rig.

On looking at the NCAP videos and write-up, I see air bags deploy as they should and the passenger compartment remains intact. The side collision is rated well which is odd because the child dummy’s head hit the B pillar. The write up states that injuries to the chest and femur of the front seat occupants could occur. It does not appear injury occurred to the dummies. The offset barrier was fixed and too low. There are more SUVs and trucks on the road so the barrier should be higher. The dummies flail around, but they do so on every crash test due to physics. I question the conclusions about injuries.

It appears there is a bias to European vehicles. Further NCAP loves electronic safety measures. The features can be great but they are not a substitute for driving safely. Additionally I’ve owned high end European vehicles and all the electronic stuff loves to fail and sensors are always going bad.

My conclusion. I’m keeping my JL and don’t have any reservations with my children riding in the Jeep. I think the 1 Star NCAP rating is biased. If I collided with one of the highly rated European vehicles I question how well they will fare.
Strap your kids in the back, go find the person who posted that crap, disconnect your sway bar and lock your axles then either:
Drive over their car.
Drive all over their landscaping.
All the while the kids should be cheering you on.
The NCAP rating is crap. There are plenty of posts on Jeep forums where people have walked away from a Jeep that was flipped multiple times, or rear ended, or many other ways. I'll take my chances in a "1 Star" Wrangler over some crappy Prius any day.

If we all walked around fretting about what vehicle would be "safest"... well, we'd all be walking around.

Oh, I also agree with the others that say leave the back doors on for the kiddos. They will still have a blast topless and the front doors off :)
 

RubenZ

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NCAP test aside, how can anyone NOT question the safety of the JL from its numerous reported cases of death wobble and the rudimentary welding? Not to mention, all the anecdotal cases of electronic issues. Although my kids will probably seldom be in the JLUR, as a father of 2 with a JLUR still in D status, I would be lying to say that it hasn't crossed my mind to abandon my order til FCA gets their 'merda' together. I really hope I come across more good threads than bad about the 2019s before my order turns to KZ.
Do you have numbers to go with those statements. Have there any deaths or injuries related to death wobble and or just driving a JEEP. I think you'll find the numbers very low compared to other vehicles or similar classed vehicles.
 

mgroeger

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NCAP test aside, how can anyone NOT question the safety of the JL from its numerous reported cases of death wobble and the rudimentary welding? Not to mention, all the anecdotal cases of electronic issues. Although my kids will probably seldom be in the JLUR, as a father of 2 with a JLUR still in D status, I would be lying to say that it hasn't crossed my mind to abandon my order til FCA gets their 'merda' together. I really hope I come across more good threads than bad about the 2019s before my order turns to KZ.
Yeah um... Wrangler may not be the vehicle for you, this is probably more your speed if you want to sit high or off road. Why I just saw three Jeeps on my way home from work where the frames snapped in half from bad welds and another guy had sparks shooting out of his radio unit.


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Cornfed

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If your scared of the Jeep sell it your problem solved.
Crash test are all staged events real world even or true ask the guy who rolled his JL and walked away. The public is so easily scared they believe in Pink UNICORNS if someone said they saw one eating a burger.
just to “piggy back” I was in a head on collision in January that totaled my 2018 jlu sport it broke my front axle bent up some parts of the frame destroyed my suspension and although I didn’t come out unscathed, I lived and replaced it with a new rubicon.
 

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mgroeger

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just to “piggy back” I was in a head on collision in January that totaled my 2018 jlu sport it broke my front axle bent up some parts of the frame destroyed my suspension and although I didn’t come out unscathed, I lived and replaced it with a new rubicon.
You do know there are easier ways to trade up to a Rubi right? ;)
 

Cornfed

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You do know there are easier ways to trade up to a Rubi right? ;)
Lol yea definitely! Been roughly eight months and my neck still isn’t right.
 

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offset_98

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My kids love rolling in the Jeep. I will not, however, remove their doors. I may look odd rolling with just the fronts off but with my youngest at 5, we’re still in a car seat.

I’ve not yet made up my mind on tube doors for back there.
 

CJACKZ

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This is our first Jeep and it was my wife’s pick even though she looked at the crash ratings. We feel that this vehicle stops better than most vehicles we have ever had. Our youngest is 12 and our grandson is 6 and he is always on a car seat. Car seats serve a purpose for young ones.

My wife nor I have concerns about our daughter or our grandson riding in the Jeep because we are driving and paying attention.

No matter the vehicle, no matter the safety rating, nothing is better than using the gray mass between ones ears.
 

Hound Dog

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This is our first Jeep and it was my wife’s pick even though she looked at the crash ratings. We feel that this vehicle stops better than most vehicles we have ever had. Our youngest is 12 and our grandson is 6 and he is always on a car seat. Car seats serve a purpose for young ones.

My wife nor I have concerns about our daughter or our grandson riding in the Jeep because we are driving and paying attention.

No matter the vehicle, no matter the safety rating, nothing is better than using the gray mass between ones ears.
Jeep Wrangler JL Children and safety in Jeep JL ThreadNecromancy
 

UKJeep2018

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Curiously enough the JL in EU crash tests shown that children are more protected than adults
 

00 Trans Ram

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Someone else may have mentioned this (didn't read all comments). But, "crash tests" ONLY measure SINGLE CAR CRASHES. In other words, a car hitting an object. Sure, this happens in real life, but car crashes involving 2 cars are far more serious on average, and are the ones we worry about.

For the most part, the larger the car, the better off it will do in a vehicle-to-vehicle crash. Take a look at this video. Specifically, look at the bottom window at 0:23. That's a mid-size SUV (similar to a JL) crashing with a sub-compact car. I've seen that whole video (can't find it now), and the ending isn't pretty. The SUV was wrecked, sure. But, the sub-compact literally bounced off like a ball and ended up looking like it had been crushed. No one survived in it, while the SUV people walked away.



TLDR - Our Jeeps are safer than most cars on the road when talking about getting in a 2-or-more vehicle wreck.
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