Everybody’s already acknowledged this is a safety concern, but I’ll also offer that the *only* thing I took away from my HORRIBLE high school physics teacher (sadly; I love the subject) was an insanely out of context rant about driving into a lake and not being able to open your car doors because of the exterior pressure; and as a result I’ve had three sets of glass-breaking tools in my car consistently for the past 20+ years.
One reason: They need to break so you can get out.
In an accident you often have to crawl out a window. With a big laminated sheet you have to shove out the whole panel. The front windshield is laminated so that it also protects you from things flying at the car at high speeds. This is less of an issue with side windows.
But after the dust settles you, or rescuers, need to get access. And a window that shatters into small non-sharp pieces lets them do that.
For safety. Say you drove your car into a lake. You can’t open the doors because the water pressure won’t let you until you can fill the car with water.
You need to be able to break the window to escape.
They’re designed to break and break as safe as possible which is why you end up with very small pieces of glass and not glass shards when you break a car window
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