They are there to protect the integrity of the passenger compartment in a crash.

This was an S-Type

Picture supplied to me courtesy of The Jag Den.

That's pretty convincing. I'm guessing one of that lamp posts neighbours left its mark on the side of the car there.

I had a very hard head on crash in a Renault once and one sill folded over itself and the other side  split open along the seam at the bottom and splayed open by several inches, scary stuff.

Hi

Saw that on Facebook, Side on into a lamppost or tree, is all ways going to destroy the car

passenger would not stood a chance in that

It is worth checking them sills and if you get them repaired, there repaired properly

there's 3 layers of metal on them sills, some people just replace the outer sill, when all 3 can rot away

cheers

Joe.

I hope there was no one in that passenger seat at the time of impact

Crikey! But a side impact into a lampost is always going to cause a challenge for a vehicle structure, you'll really need a full roll cage to deal with it 'Deathproof' etc. You could roll the issue back further and ask how the car was travelling laterally at such speed. Shot tyres, poor driving, diesel on road or similar. Anyhow, hope there was nobody was in that passenger seat! I also echo it's worth having the sills checked, took me over a year to summon the courage to whip of the plastic covers, but I got off lightly, a small patch was all, then Waxoly everything and cover them back up  

Is there anyway of checking sills without removing the covers.

On 30/10/2017 at 9:52 PM, ewanM said:

Is there anyway of checking sills without removing the covers.

Think the only way to be absolutely sure is to take them off.

 

Just had mine wax oiled and behind the sill covers too.  They were clean and solid, however there was a lot of road grit behind them, wonder if this acts like a shot blaster and removes the paint?