In this advisory video, personal injury attorney Ben Schwartz talks about the dangers of 10 and 2. Your hand placement on the steering wheel in relation to the airbags could cause you serious injuries if you are the driver and get in an accident while driving.

I’m attorney Ben Schwartz,

Today we are going to do a real quick video. It’s sort of an advisory video to motorists, to drivers and basically, this video is about the dangers of 10 and 2. So if you are like me, you took a safe driving course or you took your driver’s ed course. I took mine in high school, and we were taught that when you put your hands on the steering wheel, you put them at 10 and 2. You put them up the top of the steering wheel but separated in that way you can drive.

What I want to tell you is, that from handling personal injury claims and seeing accidents over and over, there has been a development since I took my driver’s ed course. And that is, they put airbags in the steering wheel now. I know that is not something new, but I’m probably much older than people think I am.

So what I want to tell you is that the airbag creates a significant danger. You should not put your hands at 10 and 2, because you are going to blow your thumbs off. I am telling you this from having multiple cases where people have essentially had very severe thumb or hand injuries from having their hands on the wheel. So I’m going to ask my camera lady Alyssa, can you pan over to the steering wheel?

This is 10 and 2.  People put their hands at 10 and 2. People will put their hands over the airbag and drape their hands in front of the airbag. This is very dangerous. What you really want to do if you are driving is put your hands at like 5 and 7. Rest your hands on your knees, and put them on the steering wheel. You can drive that way. Your arms will not get tired and if the airbag goes off, your hands are not in front of the airbag. You can maintain control over the steering wheel at all times. Keep both hands on the wheel that is the safest way to drive and if you really think about it, it’s really a more comfortable way to drive and an effective way to drive as well. It’s just easier to rest your arms and put your hands down at like 5 and 7.

So, I’m attorney Ben Schwartz this is just a little FYI video. It’s something it’s been on my mind. It’s something that I thought, maybe if I do a video on this, maybe one person will see this video and not drive with their hands at 10 and 2 and when they get in an accident it’ll save them from having severe hand or thumb injuries. So hopefully if I can just help one person by doing this video maybe it will be all be worth it.

I’m attorney Ben Schwartz, if you have questions for me, you know we do these videos essentially you can ask me anything and if I don’t know the answer, I will disregard your email or refer you to somebody that can answer your question. But if it’s something that’s within my sort of area of knowledge which tends to be personal injury law, personal injury litigation maybe it’ll be something I can do a video on and tag you in it and let you know that your question is something that we can answer on the internet. Maybe it’ll be something that’ll help others. I’m attorney Ben Schwartz, shoot me an email with a question at Ben.Schwartz@SchwartzandSchwartz.com.

Thanks for watching!