Yup, back then the steering wheel was a lethal weapon! Your Dad was lucky to get away with a broken nose and ribs.
Anecdote time!
~~~Wavy lines~~~
There was a big TV showroom in my home town in the '60s. The owner drove a Rolls Royce which he drove about 170 miles to the races at Ascot. On way back he crashed and was killed by direct contact with the steering wheel.
Seatbelts weren't widely worn then so like your Dad, the TV shop owner was flung against the steering wheel at speed.
The central columns of steering wheel weren't padded as they are now. Some actually had a pointy feature in the middle.
In a bad crash one could could penetrate the driver's chest. This happened to the TV bloke and he died on the spot.
The bloke's widow lived on long afterwards and I met her when I had a job making home visits.
She loved to talk about her husband - he'd been a well-known local character - and she described the accident and his injuries in detail.
His chest had been pierced and completely
stove in by the steering column.
This was about 25 years later but she still remembered the awful shock of his death.
There were funny memories too. We chatted about this one -
Most customers back then would rent a TV rather than buy. At some point the shop ended up with lots of older ex-rental TV sets which mainly needed, it was claimed, just a little repair.
The shop owner put an advert in the local paper offering a free ex-rental TV to anyone who could carry one away.
The place was politely mobbed.
Few owned cars so droves were were seen staggering away under the weight of huge tellies in solid wooden cabinets.
Some went two at a time and carried one between them. Several were seen balancing a telly on a pushbike. Prams were used.
I saw this happen myself as crowds turned up to watch the fun.