Technology from the aerospace industry and beyond is being developed and employed to help you avoid a collision and make your car a more survivable conveyance in a traffic accident. Car makers know that safety is a primary feature people look for when buying a new car. Insurance companies reward drivers with low car insurance rate quotes for buying the safest cars. Safer cars make safer drivers and help lower car traffic accident statistics.
Through the use of many different types of sensors and control systems in today's advanced safety features, your car regains traction if you swerve to avoid a deer in the road on a dark curve. If you need to come to a sudden and safe stop, your car can prevent your brakes from locking up and skidding helplessly. Your car can shave tenths of a second off your reaction time, alert you to traffic hidden in your mirror's blind spot, and even hit the brakes for you if you are not paying attention.
Although some of today's safety features are not obvious or frequently activated, they are engineered to respond to situations where alerting the driver or autonomously making minute adjustments in speed, distribution of traction, or braking force can prevent a serious accident. Other advances enhance the survivability of driver and occupants in the event of a car crash.
Crumple Zones
The impact force of a collision can be phenomenal and thanks to the concept of crumple zones, much of that destructive force is absorbed by deforming the engine compartment and other structures instead of the human body. Crumple zones are designed to disperse the force to also prevent intrusion into or deformation of passenger areas.
Airbags
Although introduced in the US as a more convenient alternative to seatbelts, airbags are a critical part of the system including seatbelts and crumple zones designed to work together to reduce impact forces on the human body. Newer airbag design incorporates a multi-stage deployment to gauge the degree of deployment to the severity of the collision.
Safety Belts
The NHTSA posts the traffic accident statistic that approximately 13,000 lives are saved by seatbelts each year and another 7,000 lives could be saved if occupants would wear them. Introduction of pre-tensioning seatbelts in 1981 add more life-saving potential by instantaneously tightening in the event of a car crash. This provides significantly more cradling of vital organs and prevents the occupant from sliding under the belt and being seriously injured.
LATCH Child Seat Anchors
Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children are required on all passenger vehicles in the U.S. and most child safety seats require their use. This became law after experts determined that numerous child fatalities were due to improperly installed child safety seats using an automobile's existing safety belts. Using the floor anchors and the tethers situated behind the back seat, child safety seats can be installed correctly and removed much more easily.
Anti-lock Brakes
Nothing can be more terrifying on the road than to have the brakes lock up and your vehicle begin to skid. When you need to stop on a slippery surface, occasionally one or more wheels will lose traction and cause you to lose control. Although based on a simple principle, the sensors and valves in an anti-lock brake system detect the moment when a wheel is about to lose traction and reduce the brake force to that wheel, allowing it to regain traction. Alternating rapidly between braking and coasting, an anti-lock system restores traction while applying breaking power.
Electronic Stability Control
As of the 2012 model year, the NHTSA will require all vehicles to have Electronic Stability Control. An enhancement of anti-lock brake technology, ESC prevents loss of control in situations where oversteer or understeer occur. Taking a curve at too great a speed can cause either of these to occur and speed sensors will detect the moment when traction is lost in one wheel and compensate accordingly.
Brake Assist
Bringing a vehicle to a quick and safe stop when the driver hits the brakes in panic mode is the goal of Brake Assist. The system is able to detect panic braking and applies rapid and strong braking power, even before the driver can push forcefully on the brake pedal. The benefit of Brake Assist technology is best exemplified in the fact that it can cut the stopping distance by 20 to 45 percent. In testing at 60 mph, Brake Assist stops a vehicle in 130 feet while a standard vehicle takes 240 feet.
Collision Mitigation Braking Systems
With the use of infrared sensors, vehicles can detect an imminent rear-end collision and perform a variety of protective tasks, including audible and visual warning signaling the driver, tightening the seatbelts, and applying the brakes. Systems are available on some models for low speed traffic situations which will bring the vehicle to a safe stop, preventing a collision, or in situations when a collision is unavoidable.
OnStar
With over 5 million subscribers, the OnStar System by General Motors is very much an integral part of a complete safety system for vehicles. By slowly and safely slowing down a stolen vehicle, the OnStar System not only offers GPS turn-by-turn navigation and vehicle diagnostic support, but it also has the ability to save lives through its in-vehicle security.
By employing both sophisticated as well as simple technologies, engineers continue to equip automobiles with life-saving features which have made a significant positive impact on car accident statistics.
