World's Most Prolific Car Designer Claims 'Safety Is a Luxury' Following Rollover Accident
A photo of Giorgetto Giugiaro sketching the Bugatti EB112 concept in 1993. Raphael Gaillarde/Getty Images
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Recently, the automotive industry almost lost one of its most influential designers when Giorgetto Giugiaro crashed and rolled his Land Rover Defender down a cliff on a hairpin bend in Sardinia. At 87 years old, Giugiaro, known for designing iconic models like the original Volkswagen Golf and BMW M1, stated that he was already out of the SUV and upright when emergency services arrived, despite having fallen 50 feet onto the road below. Now back at his home in Turin, he has shared his remarkable fortune in a memoir published by an Italian newspaper, though he views it more as a privilege.
“I owe it to the technology that I have contributed, in my own small way, to shape,” Giugiaro wrote for La Stampa, translated via Google. “If I had been in a car from fifteen years ago—the average age of vehicles on Italian roads—I likely wouldn’t be here to recount this. The statistics are clear: A modern car, with its safety features, provides seven times the chances of surviving an accident compared to one from fifteen years ago. I am one of those fortunate examples.”
The crash occurred while Giugiaro was driving alone, and thankfully, no other cars or individuals were involved. He fractured three lower vertebrae and is currently wearing an orthopedic brace, but according to his son Fabrizio, who is also a car designer, he remains in good spirits. "Dad, miraculously unharmed despite the fall, is frustrated because he won’t be able to ride his bike in August," he mentioned to Quattroruote shortly after the incident.
Here Giugiaro, seen in 2023, stands next to the Hyundai Pony concept he designed back in 1974, which has been recently restored by the automaker. GFG Style
Just over a week after the accident, Giorgetto expressed his eagerness to return to riding his trial bike and resume work. He is acutely aware of the fortunate circumstances, having dedicated what he describes as "a lifetime taming chaos on a blank sheet of paper."
"My car, equipped with intelligent pretensioners, multiple airbags, and a reinforced body designed for progressive deformation, protected me like a shell. It made the difference between an ending and a new beginning,” Giugiaro remarked, adding that “safety today is a luxury. Those who can afford a new car have a better chance of returning home safely. In 2024, Italy recorded 173,364 road accidents. How many of those drivers, in older cars, did not have my fortune? Technology saves lives, but that salvation comes at a high cost. For someone like me, who has always aimed to design cars for the masses, this is a concerning thought.”
Presently, Italdesign, the company Giugiaro founded in 1968, is owned by Volkswagen; he stepped down from the firm a decade ago. He continues to collaborate with his son at their GFG Style studio. Despite his remarkable career, this unfortunate event is likely to influence his future designs. “Perhaps, who knows, a new perspective on safety will arise from this misadventure,” he concluded. “Because the future, like cars, is drawn one line at a time. And I, I assure you, still have plenty of blank pages to fill and canvases to create.”
Giugiaro in his office, 1987. Adriano Alecchi/Mondadori
As the designer points out, safety has always been a luxury. It can be disheartening to realize that only those who can afford the latest advancements, created by Giugiaro and his contemporaries, reap the greatest benefits. However, examining the comprehensive history of automotive development over more than a century shows that these life-saving innovations eventually do filter down to more affordable, mass-market vehicles. There should always be a drive to normalize public safety, yet ultimately, driving today is statistically safer due to the work of innovators like him.
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World's Most Prolific Car Designer Claims 'Safety Is a Luxury' Following Rollover Accident
Giorgetto Giugiaro, 87, emerged unscathed from a severe accident in his Land Rover. He expresses concern that a typical car likely wouldn't have held up as well.