The cars in the 60s were rigid. This meant that, by and large, the car did damage to everything else until that threshold was passed.
The problem was two fold:
1) You tended to get thrown around inside the rigid box since internal restraints weren't very good (poor seatbelts, poor headrests, no airbags, etc.).
2) Once you finally had enough energy to get past the failure point, the car collapse was uncontrolled. This generally meant that the steering column got pushed into the driver.
The cars in the 60s were rigid. This meant that, by and large, the car did damage to everything else until that threshold was passed.
The problem was two fold:
1) You tended to get thrown around inside the rigid box since internal restraints weren't very good (poor seatbelts, poor headrests, no airbags, etc.).
2) Once you finally had enough energy to get past the failure point, the car collapse was uncontrolled. This generally meant that the steering column got pushed into the driver.