I have been craving pamcakes for about three days now.

 

Quite right; only the windshield is laminated glass because thats the impact surface nearly all the time. But just as it is with airbags, anytime your head decelerates at a rate exceedibg 10 G's you are flirting with serious injury. Just because the laminate gives with your impact doesn't mean your head is safe. Any deceleration more than 15's is 50% fatal, and more than 20G's for any significant length of time is virtually 100% fatal.

And tinting windshields are probably illegal in the USA simply because the driver cannot see at night and therefore constitutes a hazard to others. Covering up activities inside cars are just another reason dark tinting is illegal.

 

true... plus it'll be hard to make ANYTHING that could have withstood a concentration (like a missile hazard)... I could not believe how long and sharp the fragments were... I always thought it would have turned into little cubes like the side glass!

 

Gee! I hope those weren't your cars!!!
'07 VBP Sport 5MT w/ minor appearance & comfort mods!!

 

It wans't out in the open. it was hidden. The guy must've saw that suction cup thingy.

 

Hey Cojaro, I will trade you a blue Fit with all windows intact, with all windows tinted to Florida-legal, for the BMW. Straight up.

 

Bottom line is cost. There is no cheaper, yet reliable alternative to laminated safety glass, and tempered safety glass.

 

I once totaled a Mazda 626 POS with VERY dark tint on sides and rear. Had to climb out through a window, which was in ten million pieces in spite of the tint. Guess it got hit / stressed just right. The tint mostly separated from the glass.

 

I don't understand why tinting would be more dangerous in an accident. Or are you simply saying that the tinting causes accidents?

Side windows are tempered safety glass which is almost impossible to break with a blunt object (like a head). So the amount of force needed to shatter the glass with your head would be fatal tinted or not. The tinting would actually seem to add to the safety in a rollover accident by keeping the glass in place so you can't be ejected through a broken window.

Windshields are laminated safety glass which already has plastic holding it together. How does an additional tint layer make it more dangerous?

 

Well, your head will actually break the door glass and you can survive, I've seen it. Can you be killed by striking the door glass with your head? Sure can! I've seen some of that also.
But when the window has a layer of plastic over the inside, and your melon strikes it a couple of things can happen.
The glass shatters as designed but instead of your head travelling through the window it stops. Suddenly.
The G's rip your brainstem from the spinal cord.
One side of your head now looks very flat (like a pancake).
And what was a survivable side collision is now another fatality.
Or maybe you just end up with a severe insult to the brain which requires life long care.
And your window will never keep you in a vehicle in a violent rollover. Thats what a seatbelt is for.

 

So it sounds like the film is only an extra danger when you are thrown violently against the side windows. Tempered glass can hold up to being hit with a sledgehammer. I find it hard to believe that breaking it with your head would be survivable without massive brain damage. If you were lucky and the glass shattered on impact (prior to your head striking it) than not having the film holding it in place might be a good thing.

Seatbelts help keep you from being fully ejected from the car. Once the window is gone you can still suffer partial ejection during a roll. It seems to me that whether the film is good or bad depends on the type of accident you have and some measure of luck.

 

I have never see a head impact on a side window where the driver (or passenger) has been belted in, so I can't comment on that.
The NHTSA has done a study or two on the laminate vs tempered glass for side and rear windows. They came to the conclusion that it may cause more injuries than it prevents due to ejection.
I have also read that the exterior curved surface is more impact resistant than the inside. This makes sense but how much truth there is to it I don't know.
And again, other info suggests whether or not the people who survive a head strike may or may not have actually hit a fully intact window.
But I have see the head injuries to suggest they hit something hard.

 

That's wht the side curtain airbags are for! to protect your skull! I don't think you wil hit the glass in any case of accident with the curtain airbags.

 

I can understand that 5-20% tints can severely affect the driver's ability to see at night. However, 50%+ does really no harm, IMO. I've had 5%, 35%, 50% and no tint. I seriously couldn't tell too much difference between no tint and 50%. Even 35% wasn't too bad. (I'm talking front windows only. I would never tint the windshield). The amount of UV rays it blocks and keeping the car cooler in the hot weather (which means less gas used) really makes tinting attractive. You can tell a HUGE difference when riding around in a tinted vehicle vs. no tint. Plus, it keeps your interior from fading. I say if you're going for a tint, go with a 50%-75%, if you're worried about night time visibility or have bad eyes.

Also, I am interested to hear about the window tints causing fatal/severe accidents. Can a thin piece of plastic sheet really be a factor between life and death in an accident? Very interesting. I still cannot phathom a sheet of plastic that measures a thousandths of an inch having any sort of affect in an accident. Wonder if Myth Busters will take care of this? But either way, the Fit has side curtain air bags, so doesn't reall matter too much.