Smart Motorist

Safety Considerations - Safety should be your most important consideration when looking for a new or used motor vehicle. I strongly recommend that you visit SaferCar.gov early in the car-buying process, to get the safety rating for the cars you are considering. Every year they publish crash-test results from the Federal Government's New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). In addition to the most current information, they feature safety data on older cars, which lets you assess used cars.

I divide safety into three categories: the weight of a vehicle, passive safety features that help people stay alive and uninjured in a crash, and active safety features that help drivers avoid accidents. Larger, heavier cars with poor ratings may easily produce better results than smaller cars with good ratings. (See the next section, Weight Matters.) In addition to a car that crashes well (Passive Safety), you should look for a car that can avoid a crash altogether (Active Safety). Keep in mind that all of this testing was done with test dummies wearing seat belts and shoulder harnesses. Without them, a 15 mile per hour crash could prove fatal.

On urban interstates, the average speed of passenger vehicles (cars, SUVs, and pickups) in 2007 exceeded the limits in all 8 metro areas. On suburban and rural interstates, average speeds were faster than the limits in half of the metro areas. The proportion of passenger vehicles exceeding 70 mph on urban interstates ranged from 1% in Denver and Tampa to 38% in Albuquerque, while the rate exceeding 75 mph on suburban and rural interstates ranged from 6 percent in Los Angeles to 49% in Tampa.

Four-wheel-drive pick-up trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are designed to be driven for work, hauling, and off-road purposes. They were not designed to be people movers, and don't handle nearly as well as passenger cars or mini vans. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that SUVs are four times more likely to roll over than passenger cars in high-speed maneuvers. In addition, SUV-to-car collisions are six times more likely to kill the occupants of the smaller vehicle when compared to a normal car-to-car collision. You may be safer inside an SUV, but you're at greater risk of killing others in the event of an accident.

Rollover crashes account for 33% of all passenger vehicle fatalities. More than 10,000 people a year are killed in rollover crashes. You're 75% less likely to be killed in a rollover crash if you're wearing your safety belt. In 2002 alone, more than 10,000 people died in rollover crashes. The majority  of them (72%) were not wearing safety belts. Some 40%  of fatal rollover crashes involved excessive speeding . Additionally, nearly ¾  of fatal rollovers took place where the posted speed limit was 55 miles per hour or higher.

NHTSA data also suggest that over 90%  of the vehicles in fatal, single-vehicle rollover crashes were involved in routine driving maneuvers (going straight or negotiating a curve) and nearly 85%  of all rollover-related fatalities are the result of single-vehicle  crashes at the time of the crash. This further suggests that driver behavior (distraction, inattentiveness, speeding, and impaired driving) plays a significant role in rollover crashes. Reduce your chances of rolling over by observing speed limits and not drinking and driving.

Weight Matters - All cars must meet US Department Of Transportation standards for crash-worthiness. Larger and heavier cars, however, are usually safer in a collision than smaller ones. If a heavier vehicle collides head-on with a lighter one, the lighter will suffer substantially more damage. Drivers under 20 experience a much higher percentage of traffic fatalities when compared to other drivers, so consider the safety of a large or mid-sized sedan for inexperienced drivers. Large cars offer increased levels of comfort and roominess when compared to their smaller siblings, and today's fuel injected engines allow mid-sized, 6-cylinder automobiles to enjoy remarkably good gas mileage.

Passive Safety Features - Passive safety features help drivers and passengers stay alive and uninjured in a crash. Size is a safety feature: bigger is safer. In relation to their numbers on the road, small cars account for more than twice as many deaths as large cars.

Restraint systems are also crucial. Safety belts are the best safety device ever developed for the automobile. First installed in the 1950s, they have been mandatory equipment since 1967. Initial use was low (20% in 1970), but education and legislation increased their usage to over 70% by 1987. Modern restraints have automatic seat-belt pre-tensioners to pick up the slack and stretch that occurs in an accident, providing better occupant protection and additional space for the airbag deployment. It's important to remember that even though airbags help reduce serious injuries, safety belts are still needed for full protection.

Seat belts and airbags work together in a collision. Driver and passenger-side airbags are now standard equipment on every new motor vehicle sold in the US. Most used cars made after 1996 have them as well. Side-impact airbags greatly increase protection. Most European automakers offer them as standard equipment, and most Asian and domestic manufacturers offer them on their more expensive models. Despite some bad press, airbags save thousands of lives every year. Manufacturers have reintroduced the two-stage airbag (designed at GM in 1970) to avoid potential injuries to children and small adults from cheaper one-stage designs. It's still vital, however, that children ride in the back seat of any motor vehicle.

(A word about disconnecting airbags. Babies or children under 4' 7" should NEVER ride in the front seat of a vehicle because rapidly inflating airbags can severely injure or kill small front seat occupants. If there's a child in your future and you have a two-seater, ask your dealer to install a disconnect switch for the passenger-side airbag. You don't want it permanently disconnected; airbags DO save adult lives.)

Your vehicles color factor:

A team of New Zealand epidemiologists in accordance with the British Medical Journal published a two-year study of crash data compiled in their homeland, reported that silver cars were 60 percent less likely to be involved in a serious injury than the control group - white cars. Black was almost equally bad at 100 percent more likely, green cars were 80 percent and brown vehicles were 110 percent more likely to be involved in an injury accident than white cars.

Most automobile headrests provide little protection in rear-end accidents. European automobiles rate far better than domestic or Asian models in this area (see iihs.org for head restraint ratings for most new and used vehicles). The federal government required their installation in 1967, but haven't provided standards for their successful implementation. An effective headrest is one that's directly behind the centerline of the head and positioned no more than a couple of inches away. Be aware that some seating options change the size and style of head restraint. Check Child restraint laws for you state.

Structural integrity is another important component of passive safety. The US Department of Transportation requires that the doors and passenger compartments of automobiles made after 1996 meet minimal side impact standards. The legislation doesn't apply to light trucks (minivans, pickups, SUVs), but most manufacturers of even these vehicles have complied with the law.

Active Safety Features - Active safety features help drivers avoid accidents. A vehicle's tires, brakes, handling, acceleration, and visibility all make important contributions to active crash avoidance.

The most important safety items on a car are the tires. Think about it: they're all that connects your vehicle to the road. A good set of tires can make a huge difference to the way a car responds to emergency maneuvers. Tire quality also noticeably affects the way a car handles. Sport touring tires have much more grip than regular tires, although their softer compounds don't last as long.

Anti-lock brakes (ABS) are an often-misunderstood active safety feature. ABS helps you stop shorter and maintain steering control while braking, especially on slippery surfaces. Take time to understand how it works because in an abrupt stop, ABS feels noticeably different. With regular brakes, sudden stops tend to lock up the brakes, causing a skid. Anti-lock brakes sense when a wheel is locked and electronically pump the brakes ten times faster than you could do it, making a ratcheting noise and a vibration in the brake pedal. Old braking techniques must be unlearned in order to use ABS effectively. In a panic stop, depress the brake pedal once, and hold it down firmly. Do not pump the pedal as you normally would, because that defeats the system. To reiterate: antilock brakes eliminate the need for pedal pumping during panic stops or while braking during wet or icy conditions.

Traction Control is a worthwhile option that improves traction and directional stability on slippery roads, using a combination of electronics, drive train control, and ABS. Some systems adjust engine power output while gently applying the brakes to particular wheels during acceleration and cornering. BMW, Cadillac, and Mercedes-Benz offer new electronic stability-control systems on their higher-priced models. These systems help stabilize a vehicle's handling when it's pushed to the limits. Look for these systems to appear on less expensive models in the near future.

Electronic Stability Control (ESC) is a promising new technology that will help drivers stay on the road in emergency situations. ESC uses automatic braking of individual wheels to prevent the heading from changing too quickly (spinning out) or not quickly enough (plowing out). ESC cannot increase the available traction, but maximizes the possibility of keeping the vehicle under control and on the road during extreme maneuvers by using the driver’s natural reaction of steering in the intended direction. Data shown that it decrease traffic fatalities by 15% for most cars, and 25% for SUVs.ESC also names as  Vehicle Stability Control (VSC), Electronic Stability Program (ESP), and Vehicle Stability Enhancement (VSE) by different traders.

Ford and Volvo researchers worked together to develop Collision Warning with Brake Support (CWBS). Launched on the 2007 Volvo S80, CWBS uses forward-looking radar to gauge an impending frontal crash. If a potential car collision is detected, a warning is first given via an audio alert and a Head-Up Display light "bar" reflected off of the front windshield. Then, the system augments the driver's braking by automatically applying additional brake pressure to further reduce the vehicle's speed.

Emergency Brake Assist (EBA) or Collision mitigation brake system:

Emergency Brake Assist (EBA) detects the speed or the brake force at which the driver presses the brake pedal, and applies all available power boost if this speed or this force exceeds a certain threshold, considering that the driver is in an
emergency situation.

A study by Laboratory of Accidentology, Biomechanics and studies of human behaviour (LAB) for European Center for Security Studies and Analysis Risks (CEESAR) found that Emergency Brake Assist (EBA) can potentially reduce overall stopping distance by eliminating the delay caused by a common human tendency of not braking hard enough or soon enough. This reduction might end up with a reduced collision speed and thus with a crash avoidance or a mitigation of its consequences.

Study furthermore shown that various studies of driver behavior tests in emergency situations with non-EBA equipped vehicles have shown that, for 100 cases where braking was observed, between 20 and 30% of drivers do not apply sufficient pressure on the brake pedal to reach the full braking potential. If, in an emergency situation, EBA reduces brake activation time and also allows maximized braking in the case of driver "failure", larger fatality reductions are possible.

 

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