No head-on collision involved AFAIK. The rack would maybe slow a 2-ton pickup by a couple mph depending on how much it weighs.
For example, say the pickup weighs 4000 and the rack 40 (1%). If the pickup hit a stationary rack, it would slow the pickup 1% (down to 69.3 mph). Hitting a rack oncoming at another 70 mph would bring it down 2%, to 68.6 mph. No airbag. Hitting the Honda OTOH…
What?
The rack or a portion of what the police called a rack went thru a glass window and killed the truck’s driver. Anything coming off the roof of a smaller sedan is well positioned to manage that.
I doubt the widow cares how fast it was going when it killed her husband.
Two objects hitting at 50 mph head on does not equal hitting a wall at 100 mph.
I will say that bow & stern lines are very good at keeping loose racks on cars when loaded. I’ve experienced it personally. My bowlines went super tight on the highway once, so I coasted to a stop, and found that the rack had come loose from the roof. The lines were the only thing that kept the rack and boats on the car long enough to stop safely. Now a paddling bud at the time used to preach that the straps on the rack were all you needed to anyone who listened. A few years later, his rack came off the car on the highway, and dumped 2 18 foot sea kayaks on the road. Luckily, nobody got hurt.
It’s not just paddlecraft that come off racks, so singling them out wouldn’t be fair. As an example, my first job after college was handling liability and litigated insurance claims. I was visiting an agent that I used to deal with a lot, and asked the woman I dealt with what made her stop doing what I did, and go to an agency, and she told me that she had been asked to photograph and take statements from witnesses at an accident in the old Tappan Zee bridge in NY that was nearby that had just happened. A sailboard had not been tied down on the roof of a car properly, came loose, and when the driver stopped quickly, shot out of the rack and decapitated an oncoming driver. She got there while the scene was still intact, saw what happened, puked, threw her company car keys off the bridge, took a taxi home, and found a new job.
I have always made sure I had good and multiple tie-downs on my boats since then. It can happen with any external load.
I am not saying that the bow and stern lines cannot keep things together for a bit. They can. And as I have been saying, you saw the issue start in that bow line.
But you saw it and pulled over quickly. If you had kept driving at highway speeds because you did not know it was going on, really no way to be sure that those lines would have kept things on the roof.
And we still don’t know anything about what the police are calling a rack. I am thinking of how my rack could come off my car and do what happened here. The only way I can think that my cross bars could cause such a result - the kayak was still attached for the first hit - would be for the whole thing to have fallen off pretty much intact.
It was probably way beyond its initial failure point by the time it became a lethal weapon.
My biggest fear remains that this will explode and insurance companies will end up reviewing their terms. If we escape that result I will be happy.
I agree. My main thought is not so much that the rack would stay on in all conditions, but that if it does come off, that it would be much less likely to take flight, but just fall off the car to one side, and be dragged. A lot safer.
Just some observations from working at kayak shops:
Most of the rack failures I have seen involved the whole rack peeling off the roof while on the highway. All of these occurred on bridges when the car emerged into the open and felt the stronger winds. One failure of J cradles coming off the bars (again with a strong crosswind on a bridge) - in that case the driver reported that the bowline snapped immediately. I personally haven’t seen any failures of cradle components or straps, although I know they happen too.
I know at least one of the failures was operator error of reinstalling the rack incorrectly on a naked roof sedan.
Fortunately no injuries on the incidents that I know about, mostly repairable boats too. Unfortunately not the case this time 
I will double strap if going for a long drive. Bowlines always unless just going down the street. Now that I have new crossbars and have all the little easily-loseable parts to tighten the racks, I’m going to try to be better about retightening mine frequently.
If your car has factory rails and an added rack system I aways recommend looping the main straps around not only the boat and rack, but the roof rails as well. This in addition to bow and stern lines will keep everything on the roof if a rack failure occurs.
As far as factory crossbars, watch some crash tests. You will often see the crossbars merrily tumble off the roof as the car body flexes.
Use ropes that don’t stretch much for tie downs so they don’t lossen. Knot and rope supply tells you about characteristics of each rope.
This topic gets discussed so often and I think that most “enthusiasts” here will agree that some sort of extra tie downs beyond just two straps around the boat are advisable. But there are a lot of differing opinions on the details of just what to.
I personally won’t go anywhere without both bow and stern tie downs, even going a mile down the road. I have the tie downs available, and don’t mind taking the time to connect them. And I like my bow tie down on the car to be mounted as far forward as possible. Up to now, I’ve always found a way to snake a webbing strap out through a slot in the grill, with the strap secured to a metal part of the bracket or framework that supports the hood latch mechanism. And I’m happy with a single tie down in the center. But I can certainly see the value of hood loops with two tie downs coming up from each side of the hood.
I’ve always had small hatchback cars that don’t offer roof rails, so I use racks with towers that clamp on the door frames (I use Thule). I actually think those are very secure, sort of like a giant pair of pliers that clamps across the full width of the roof. With roof rails, you have to think about how the rails are attached to the roof - many are just bolted down with a single bolt at four spots on the roof. And then there’s another connection point where the crossbars attach to the rails. I’m not knocking roof rails, just pointing out that there are things to think about with each system.
And another factor that’s come up before is that many people have no experience at tying appropriate knots in rope. Tie downs can be pretty useless if the only knot the driver knows is the one for tying your shoes. So those folks would be better off using latching type hooks and ratchet devices for their tie downs.
I assume you mean the hand tightened ratchet mechanism like Thule sells and not lever type ratchets. While I’ve used lever type ratchet straps for tying down lumber and steel pipe on my truck rack, I do not recommend them for securing a kayak. Straps or rope (non-stretching) used to secure a kayak needs only be snug to be effective. It’s too easy to overtighten a lever type ratchet mechanism.
If you are not knowledgeable regarding the appropriate knots for utilizing rope to secure bow and stern tiedowns, there are plenty of ready made tiedowns online or at various kayaks shops and outfitters. Avoid those with open hooks. These can bounce loose on rough roads with disastrous consequences . I’ve taken these open hooks and bent them into a loop with a heavy duty bench vise to use with more secure hardware like snap hooks or stainless carabiners.
Belts and braces! And whatever system you use, check it every time you get out of your vehicle.
If you find that your car is too small or too plastic to safely carry on top install a hitch and get a small utility trailer. They are easily adaptable and easily towed. If you are unfamiliar with trailers practice with it before you go on the road. The load will be below your vehicle so there will be no noticeable drag or loss of efficiency. Put bicycle style flags on the back corners so you can tell where it is from the drivers seat. They are a must have for backing up. Remember that it is back there and allow extra room if you are passing someone. The bonus is that you will have extra room for coolers, camping gear and whatever. Be sure to secure any added items.
People that are too lazy to learn a trucker’s hitch and some half hitches, are the same one that are too lazy to learn how to paddle.
Ppine …. That’s a very blanket statement. I use a trucker hitch on the front and Malone speed lines on the rear. This allows us both quick access to opening our jeeps rear hatch. I guess that makes me /us lazy.
Diff strokes for diff folks.
With cam straps for bow and stern lines I can put the boats on the night before and leave all 4 cam straps just slightly snug. In the morning when we leave it takes just a second to cinch them all down. If we drive a while and stop I check them again and I can re-tighten if the vibration of travel has set in a little. With ropes and knots it requires untying the half hitches and tying them again.
For me it is cam straps all around but having the ability to tie a trucker hitch is also a good thing to know.
This is so true. When a really strong crosswind pushed one of my saddles towards the end of my crossbar, sudden slack in the bow line alerted me as I was driving across Florida. We made a quick fix and then decided it was better to take lower speed roads home.
I try to do the same. Hate having to load the boat and get to a paddle the same morning.
I also use cam straps, (although I know knots when needed). The thing with bow and stern lines is you just want them tight enough to remove the slack, not enough to put stress on the kayak.
I’ve no idea what those straps even are and I can only vaguely guess as to how to use a roof rack. Our small boat fits nearly on a lawn care trailer from Lowe’s. Tying it down with ratchet straps, a cable lock, and using safety chains is a given. Our kayaks are short and relatively heavy. They’ll ride in the truck bed and not budge even up to 100 mph. Anything that isn’t physically locked will vanish around here so they usually are secured with cable locks.
IMHO boats, kayaks, etc. are too large and bulky to be safely hauled with anything less than a half ton truck.