Gas Pocket

If I remember right, quite a few economy cars would do this on their own during the nineties. I think Geo Prizm was one of those time-bomb cars. Even I saw one on fire. That last one must have burned years ago because they went from being pretty common to non-existant quick.

Ford Pintos were the worst, with an essentially exposed gas tank in the rear. Rear-end collisions of 25-MPH could puncture the tank, and in higher-speed collisions the doors could jam, trapping the occupants inside. Ford's cost-benefit analysis (whch had also short-changed safety considerations) showed that keeping that flaw in production for several years, and settling out of court, was cheaper than seriously re-designing or cancelling the car.

But I guess the "gas pocket" is scarier because to the unsuspecting driver it could come from nowhere. Similarly, I think, was the case in the midwestern city I grew up in where an old storm sewer line began leaking, and water slowly washed away the soil under the street, so that one night the street gave way under a car driving downtown, and the car fell into a deep crater.

What a way to go.

18, a wife, and a car. Definitely a time gone by!