Lorena, It's best to keep Monster in his crate in the back seat rather than the front. There is a reason that human baby car seats are put in the back seat. However, if for some reason, you ever have to use the front seat for Monster (where the air bag can deploy), be sure to keep the seat set way back to try to prevent the full impact of the explosion.
Those air bags also give off a gas. I remember when I was in my big accident, the first thing I did was fling my door open to ventilate that awful gas. I've also been in two different T-bone accidents like you said your was. One was on my way home from college, and I wasn't driving over 25 MPH. However a van ran a stop sign and pulled off directly in front of me. I was on a through road with no stop signs and didn't expect anyone to drive straight through a stop sign. That time I was in a tiny sports car with just lap belts. He was in a huge, white van. My car was also totaled that time. Even so, it wasn't as totally demolished and unrecognizable like when the drunk hit me on the Interstate. The accident on the Interstate almost caused me to never get behind the wheel of a car again. In the accent with my sports car, I was hurt (bruises, neck injury, etc), but didn't have to go to the hospital. Just my regular doctor who was between the accident scene (a couple of miles from home) and where I lived. Being very young and never having had anything bad ever happen to me before, I just couldn't get the accident out of my head for the longest of times. I also had to later go to court to testify against the driver who caused the accident. Because of previous violations, he had his licence revoked for causing that accident. Luckily, there were no dogs in my car that time. The entire back bumper of my car fell off from the impact when the front of the car hit the side of the van. Rag tops also aren't the safest cars for either people or dogs. But I loved that car, and it was my dog show car for years when I first started to show my dogs. BTW, my first sports car had been "killed" in an accident while alone and parked. I came out one morning to find my car all crumbled up and sitting on the side way. Duh? That about broke my heart. However no one but the car was hurt. The driver, who had smashed my little car, had a big car & mistakingly had hit the gas rather than the breaks. This makes you wonder about people. I also had another T-bone accident where a driver again ran a stop sign while I was on a through street with no stop signs. But after the accident years before which "killed" my little sports car, I've always been on the watch for people who have stops signs - even if I'm on a through street with no stops. From experience, I've learned that you never know what someone else really might really might do. In this case, I was only going 25 MPH to start out with. However, I got this gut feeling when I saw the car on the side street approach the stop sign. So I started to slow down even more & then immediately slammed on the breaks the second I saw him run the stop sign. Had such an accident happened at a high speed, the wife in the passenger compartment could have been killed in a T-bone. They were in a very small car. I probably wasn't going over 10 MPH when my car hit theirs. But the accident still did a lot of damage to their car. Luckily, the wife wasn't at all hurt. That was my main concern. The driver was a nice guy & he admitted that they had been so busy talking that he just didn't notice the stop sign or me on the main street. So not all accidents are caused by bad people. Luckily, thanks to my quick thinking, everyone involved was fine. Even if it wasn't my fault, I don't think I could live with the guilt of ever hurting anyone. So I was so thankful that I noticed their odd behavior & was able to anticipate their running the stop sign. That time I did have dogs in car with me. I was coming home from a dog show and was only a few blocks from the show grounds. Thanks to my quick thinking, every one of my 3 dogs were safe in their little creates and not even upset. And I've been in 3 more accidents where I was rear ended. Twice at low speeds where the other driver just wasn't paying attention (one was on the cell phone and the other was just in a hurry). I was stopped every time for a red light. The third time that I was rear ended was when I was waiting the red light when a Mack truck did a complete lane change (on a 4 lane road) to plow into the back of my husband's Audi. This was another drunk driver. He was driving with a revoked licence. When our insurance company investigated him, it turned out that he'd been involved in the deaths of 3 different people in 3 other accidents. So I was VERY lucky to just have the rear of my car demolished and walk away with just some whip lash. All these accidents have taught me that you never, never know who you might be sharing the roads with. Your life (and the lives of those in the car with you) is always in your hands just as soon as you pull your car out of the drive way. And often it isn't even in your hands but instead in the hands of someone else who is also on the road. I think it took me about 6 months to put my first accident (mentioned above that totalled my sports car) behind me. So give yourself so some time; plus get back to driving ASAP. That will help with your fears and the nightmares. And get that crate for Monster!!! If you keep him in the back seat, he will be a whole lot less traumatized - if something would ever again happen. Oh to your question, put the seat belt through the handle of the crate and then completely around the crate. That way the crate can't go anywhere. Liz PS After thinking about old memories, I'm not so sure that I want to drive anywhere today. Sigh. So many things - not our faults - can happen. But in today's World, we still gotta drive... Based on suddenly feeling a little apprehensive again myself today, I can image how bad you must feel with your own accident being so fresh in your mind. Hang in there. Our minds allow us to put bad things behind us and to keep on going. I think I will go with a hard carrier for Monster. How do you seatbelt it in though? Before the accident, I really wanted a console car seat for him, which would of kept him safe in this accident but probably not in a worse one. He may have gotten some burns from the airbags though but I'm not sure. I know he would of been traumatized and I hope he never has to go through that because I don't know if he could handle the stress. Lorena ------------------------------------ We are now on Facebook! Join today! http://www.facebook.com/groups/chihuahuasclubYahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chihuahuas/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chihuahuas/join (Yahoo! 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