Many children did not survive car crashes because they were allowed to wander about in a car. Many nowadays do survive with seatbelts and safer car seats for the smaller children.
“And that my grandparents felt that wearing seatbelts was dangerous because it would keep you from getting out of a wrecked car quickly. I guess when he started driving around 1920 you were at a lot less risk from a crash at 20MPH than from the fire that might come afterwards.”
I recall reading that up through about the ‘60s, Formula One cars didn’t have seatbelts. At the time, most drivers preferred being thrown from a flipping car to being trapped in a burning car, and between extensive use of magnesium and carrying enough fuel to run a two-hour race (as much as 50 gallons in some cases) there was a good chance that an F1 car would start burning after a crash.