Lifeguard (automobile safety)


Lifeguard was the name of a 1956 safety package marketed by the Ford Motor Company.
Spurred by Robert McNamara, the Cornell University crash research program and the first year of Ford's own crash testing the Lifeguard package included:
According to some, the buying public was unresponsive to the Lifeguard package, prompting Henry Ford II to say: McNamara is selling safety, but Chevrolet is selling cars. though Ralph Nader and Joan Claybrook dispute this claiming that the package was extremely popular.

1957 update

In 1957, Ford updated the Lifeguard safety package with a new frame that bowed out to completely enclose the passengers, rear child-proof door locks, a front hinged hood to protect against the hood flying up in the wind, and recessed knobs.