Before my time but an interesting quick article.
https://blog.caranddriver.com/the-many-ways-in-which-cars-were-stupendously-unsafe-60-years-ago/
Ask Ralph Nader!!
IIHS crashed a 1959 car and a 2009 car for comparison:
http://www.iihs.org/iihs/about-us/milestones/50th-anniversary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_r5UJrxcck
Here is some more video of 1960s crash tests:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siT-SIfOnQw
Notice doors opening with seats and crash test dummies falling out. Even if seat belts were present and used, being dumped out of the car because the door opened and the seat broke off and fell out would not be pleasant.
Of course, car performance, which (at least for handling and braking) helps avoid crashing in the first place, has improved immensely over the decades. Here is a comparison between a common 2015 family car and a 49 year older high performance car:
https://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/features/corvette-vs-camry-comparison-test.html
Here is another one between a minivan and some 39 year older high performance cars:
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/soccer-moms-revenge/
What a shame to wreck an antique for science.
But 60 years ago no drivers were texting so overall road safety may be a wash.
It was not a show or museum quality car, and it cost the IIHS $8,500 to buy.
https://jalopnik.com/5364071/yes-the-iihs-crashed-59-chevy-had-an-engine
https://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/more-details-about-1959-bel-air-crash-test/
In 1956, there were 6.05 fatalities per million vehicle miles traveled in the US. In 2016, there were 1.18 fatalities per million vehicle miles traveled in the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year
There is a very good display on car safety at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. The entire museum is very much worth a visit if anyone is in the area, and IMHO spending a full day there would be warranted.
If I am remembering this right, Mercedes did a lot of early work on car safety, patented their findings, and then immediately gave it all away for free to all car manufacturers worldwide. Apparently at some point there was the notion that to make a car safe it should be very strong so that it would stay intact in an accident. One thing that they discovered in their studies was that the car stayed intact, but the people flew around inside and could be badly injured by striking the car from inside. Thus the invention of crumple zones and seat belts. Admittedly this display is only one small cool thing to look at in a museum full of many, many cool things.
My totally unscientific observation is that the decrease in safety from texting et al is probably balanced by the increase in safety because of less drunk driving. The latter was probably still worse–it’s weird to remember what was considered “okay” back in the day as far as drinking and driving, and certainly there were less road checks, less penalties, and less awareness. But car safety does seem to be the biggest factor.
I recently sold my 50 year old car. I didn’t sell it because it was dangerous to drive, but I was acutely aware of the dangers every time I drove it. I was always in super-defensive driving mode. I felt uncomfortable having my wife in the car as a passenger (although I never bored her with my fears). Aside from the lack of airbags (car did have one of the first collapsible steering wheels - big whoop!) the gas tank was located directly behind the seats, so a rear ender could easily have blown me up. No anti-lock braking system, no traction control… it’s a long list! In the hobby we say the purpose of the seatbelts in those old cars is to keep your (dead) body close to the car.
Not mentioned in the article–the kids’ car seats from back in the day. I remember sitting next to my mom in a booster that was designed only to let the child see out the front window. I don’t think it was tethered to the seat at all, and it had a play steering wheel attached that I imagine would have gone straight into my skull in the event of an accident. Whenever my mother had to stop short, she’d throw her right arm across me to keep me in the car seat, a technique that I’m sure would have been useless in a collision as she herself, not wearing a seat belt because they didn’t exist then, would have been thrown around like a ragdoll.
@NJres …“In the hobby we say the purpose of the seatbelts in those old cars is to keep your (dead) body close to the car”
I actually had a chance to study hundreds of photographs of accident fatalities a few years ago. IMO most drivers died from aortal tearing when they hit the steering wheel but by far most people died from being ejected. It was the landing head first that killed them.
I remember riding around in the bed of a truck when I was a kid. 
My dad installed seatbelts on our family cars when I was a kid in the mid-1960’s or so after my cousin was thrown from my aunt’s car in minor collision – fortunately no serious injury.
My dad actually paid extra to have rear seat belts installed in our 1967 Datsun. We were the only people I knew back then with a Datsun. When we were rear-ended one time, my sister was injured when she went forward in the belt and hit her mouth on the metal ash tray that was attached to the back of the front passenger seat. That incident was actually what inspired me to become a lawyer, but that’s another story. She was 6 at the time.
When my oldest son (now 27) was born, we used the rear facing car seat. After my D was born 14 months later, we put her in that seat and got a forward seat for him. My MIL used to complain about trying to put him into it, and complained that she didn’t have to do this when HER kids were babies in the 50’s. I asked her if she would have used a car seat if one had been available and she said, of course! I wound up buying a seat to leave in her car permanently, which made it easier for her. My youngest is 18 and he came out of a car seat at 40 lbs, or about age 5. Now, even just a few years later, kids stay in car seats much longer and I think it’s great.
I also think that many of the other advances have contributed to the reduction in MVA deaths, including air bags even on side windows and lap and shoulder belts (but not the dangerous “engulf and devour” type),
I remember one time my dad loaded ELEVEN people into our Datsun (bucket seats and a rear that sat 3) to go see the movie “Camelot.” I sat on my dad’s friend’s lap with my sister in the front passenger seat. My dad was the only one who wasn’t doubled or tripled up. Imagine trying that today!
^Once went to a concert with 9 high school or older folks in a Gremlin. Ah, the bad old days!
In the mid-50s, tiny babies were put in a portable bassinet designed to hang over the back of the front bench seat. Do not believe there was any way to even secure the baby, never mind the bassinet. My father added seat belts to our 1961 car.
Yes, that was a car bed. The one I remember hooked over the 2nd seat. The toddler in the family sat in the car seat in the middle of the front seat. It hooked over the seat and had a little steering wheel and horn. Some of us then doubled up in the 2nd seat. The rest of us played in the “way back”. Sometimes we climbed between these areas. This was a regular occurrence when we drove an hour each way (mostly on the highway) to our grandparent’s house.
LOL my mom had a Datsun, too, and I never knew anyone else with one.
My uncle was a Northeastern student. As a passenger, when the car he was in went off the road and up an embankment, he was thrown from the car (no seat belts) and died because the car rolled back over him.
No seatbelts - we would ride in the well of my mom’s VW bug (try to fit as many cousins as possible) or in sleepbags in the back of my grandparents sedan.
Sadly, there was a tragedy a few years ago in S. Jersey when an SUV overfilled with with boys from a nearby high school and rolled over over on the Parkway–four of the eight were thrown from the vehicle and killed.