I had a friend of mine in the car recently with me who kept asking me to wind down the windows in the car.  He prefers to do that for the flow of air and I told him that firstly the noise from outside tends to irritate me and I prefer more of the silence inside the car, but I also don’t think it is that safe to drive with the windows open.  

I have done Road Accident Fund claims for clients before who have been injured by things that have bounced off trucks and through windscreens as well as open windows, including one particular young lady whose lower jaw was basically separated from her upper jaw by something, which I can no longer recall, that bounced off the road from a truck in front of her.  I have not done many cases like that recently, but I have done more than my fair share cases that involve objects that bounce off the road or are thrown towards one’s vehicle by another vehicles tyres and I genuinely believe that it is far safer to have all of your windows closed and the air conditioning turned on if you have air conditioning than to drive with open windows.  It is naturally safer to be inside a motorcar when you get hit by another car than it is to be riding a motorbike at that time.  The glass does give you an extra layer of protection against stones and all sorts of things that can quite easily injure you including cases of people being blinded if you don’t have your windows closed.  By the same token, my old coach at Country Club Johannesburg, who eventually gave up golf and became a commentator on Tellytrack, the horseracing channel, had a client seriously injured on the golf range.  Hitting down on the ground, a tee that was embedded in the ground, flew into his eye and blinded him and I find that it is a lot safer when I am playing golf to play with sunglasses on because the dirt does often spray straight up towards your eyes and it may not just be sand that hits you in the eye.