Tom Brady Car Accident - Driving Safe Car Saves Lives and Careers.

New England Patriots NFL quarterback Tom Brady was on his way to practice when he crashed into a minivan which allegedly ran a red light.  His Audi S8 car T-boned the other vehicle a few blocks from his home.  A relieved New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft noted after the accident:

"[Tom] arched and prepared himself and we're just lucky with the glass and angles. We have a lot to be thankful for. It was really a miracle....We're very, very lucky. Patriot Nation is lucky he had his seatbelt on."

Was it simply luck or good car design and mechanical engineering?  Crumple zones and the passenger cage of a car when built for maximum safety decrease injury.  Yet, unfortunately, there is significant variability among safety in cars.  Brady walked  away from the accident for a variety of reasons.  As a future hall of fame quarterback, Brady has lightning fast reflexes when analyzing defensive blitzes and options when throwing the football.  Quickly bracing himself for impact may have helped.  Wearing a seatbelt definitely helped.

What also helped the most was the type of car he drove.  Audi cars were recently recognized by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety as Top Safety Picks with the manufacturer recognized with more models than any other luxury German car brand. Earning a Top Safety Pick requires that the vehicle receive a good rating in each of these categories - high-speed front and side crash tests, a rollover test, and protection against neck injuries after rear impact with evaluations of seat/head restraints.  Perhaps had celebrity Dr. Frank Ryan driven a top safety pick car despite his vehicle's rollover, he might be alive today.  There is tremendous variability in a vehicle's ability to protect its occupants which vary among manufacturers as well as models and model year.

Driving a safe vehicle should be as important as exercising regularly, eating healthy, and maintaining a good weight.  Much like quitting smoking or losing weight, the goal is to prevent premature death or disability.  Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death for those under the age of 34 and the third leading cause of death for people between ages 45 to 54.  Motor vehicle accidents account for the majority of unintentional injuries.  In that moment, all of those healthy habits become meaningless, even for a superstar athlete.  You can do everything right, like Dr. Oz, and discover that you still can have a precancerous colon polyp.


Life happens.  Simply bad luck?  Perhaps.  What can you do to mitigate the risk or bad luck further?

Plan for it the best you can.  In this case, having a car brand that is among the safest in the world, helps.  His car saved his life and saved his career.  It protected him from needing an emergency room visit and evaluation.  As a result, Brady simply walked away from the accident.  He made his practice a little while later and finished his drills with teammates.  He displayed no sign of injury or diability.

Was all of that worth the time and effort to find a car that is fun to drive and yet incredibly safe?

You bet.  Don't believe me?

Ask his wife, Gisele Bundchen, and his sons Benjamin and John.  I'm sure they are glad to have him home safe and sound even as he takes his hits on Sunday as the premier quarterback in the NFL.

How Your Car Purchase Impacts Your Health

How to select a safe car is an important skill many people may not know. People often don’t realize how this simple decision can affect their health and future healthcare costs. Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death among people age one to thirty-four and the third leading cause among forty-five to fifty-four-year-olds. The most common cause of unintentional injuries is motor vehicle accidents. In 2002, the death rate for motor vehicle accidents was triple the HIV death rate and 60 percent of the breast cancer death rate.

Clearly all vehicles are not created equal. I know this from personal experience having simply walked away from a serious accident. The car I was riding in was my soon to be father-in-law’s prized Mercedes-Benz. The car skidded on an oil patch on a very busy LA freeway, ran up a hillside, and flipped on its side. The car was a total loss. What was clear to me was that the engineering made a difference between my financee and I walking away, very shaken, but not injured, as opposed to being seriously injured or killed. The passenger compartment, while it gave slightly, stay intact protecting us. We’ve all see horrific pictures of motor vehicle accidents and often this compartment is obliterated. Was it because no amount of engineering could have overcome the tremendous forces involved in an accident or simply because safety wasn’t paramount to the design?

Although all vehicles seem strong with their metal frames, there are tangible engineering and design differences in motor vehicles. The outcome could be life or death. The result could be walking away from an accident or a life filled with disability.

Thinking critically about what you drive can impact your health. In fact, one study showed that the declining death rate in motor vehicle accidents over the past decade was not due to better drivers or improved roads, but to safer cars.

Where to look? Start with the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety. Be sure to check the model year of the vehicle you are interested in. Surprisingly, the safety of a particular make can vary annually.

Once you've found the vehicle that fits your criteria of safety, then you can move on and focus on how to improve the rest of your health by exercising, maintaining a healthy weight, not smoking, and only drinking alcohol is moderation.