Auto Safety
Robert
Writing in the 21st century
Every day like most people I get into a car and drive to work. We quickly forget the dangers of driving. Of course people know about serious accidents and crashes with no survivors but everyone feels nothing like that will ever happen to them. The automobile is one of the greatest inventions of all time and throughout recent history the most common use of transportation is the automobile. In the late eighteen hundreds the car was created and since then every passing year more improvements have been made. In 1896 the first automobile was manufactured. Today its not just a way of getting around, it’s now a way of traveling in style, comfort, and safety. Although automobiles have come a long way we still don’t have completely safe vehicles. With over 100 years of production and countless improvements in safety the automobile is still a dangerous tool. Almost everyone has been in a car and there isn’t a day that goes by when you don’t see them. We build roads, bridges, and gas stations throughout the world for the sole purpose of using the car.
The first major safety feature is the seat belt. All passenger vehicles are required by federal standards to have seat belts. After 1967 light trucks and vans were made with seat belts. (Seat Belt Laws) This was a huge step in making cars safer. We have been taught as a young child to put your seat belt on. Everyday technology is continuing to grow and improve itself. With larger vehicles like SUVs and pickup trucks safety is becoming more necessary than ever. A Ford excursion crashing into a mini cooper hardly seems fair. It’s not just size difference it is also the people driving. Ask anyone who drives an SUV and you will hear that they feel safer because they are higher up and larger in dimensions and in weight. What people drive is their business but they have to understand that a 4,500 pound vehicle and a 2,500 stop differently. Most cars today come with anti locking breaks. This helps prevent skids when the driver slams on the breaks. It allows the wheels to continue moving ever so slightly giving you some control instead of just momentum pulling you. Another recent add to mid class cars is VSC and traction control (Memmer). VSC stands for vehicle stability control which is made for the bad weather conditions cause you to skid. It automatically senses skidding and applies brakes to those wheels. Let’s say the weather isn’t that great and a light layer of snow covers the street. You’re sitting in a large luxury car cruising down a lightly covered road. Up ahead the road bends and you are naturally accelerating down the hill. A distraction hits you like a cell phone ringing or maybe someone in the car getting your attention. You begin veering off into the oncoming lane of traffic. You look up and quickly swerve to avoid an oncoming car causing your vehicle to fishtail. Just then without you doing anything the VSC kicks in causing breaking to wheels that need it. Your vehicle comes out of the fishtail and you continue on your way. The VSC may have just saved your life. When people hear traction control they assume it has to do with gaining better traction and control. Traction ranges from breaking to accelerating and turning. Traction control affects both acceleration and breaking. The only part of your car touching the ground is the tires, so having good traction is extremely important. Another great safety feature that most people don’t even know about is the built in crumple zones. In 1966 Volvo produced the first crumple zones. (crumple zone history) Today all vehicles have built in crumple zones. Nearly every vehicle today is built with front and rear crumple zones. They are made to absorb most of the impact of a crash to help protect you. They are deliberate weak spots that are made to crush around you. According to Duane Bong each year thousands of lives are saved from crumple zones. (Bong) One important factor of buying a new or used car is the safety rating.
Every car produced has a safety rating
but as a consumer do you know what the rating means. Most people know that there is the five star
safety system and the higher the star the safer the car but do you know what
each star means? The star system is an
easy way for people to understand how safe their car is in different
crashes. A single star rating means that
there is a greater than 45% chance of sustaining serious damage in a crash. Two stars means there is a 35-45% chance of
injury a crash. Three stars means 20-34%
percent chance of injury in a crash.
Four stars means there is an 11-19% chance of injury. (Car.com) The highest rating is five stars which is
less than a 10% chance of injury. The
insurance institute for highway safety has four categories that are slightly
different. The four categories are 
(good), 
(acceptable), 
(marginal) and 
(poor). Side impact crashes have a similar but
different star system. One star means
there is a greater than 26% chance of serious injury in a crash. Two stars is a 21-45% chance if injury in a
crash. Three stars are between 11-20%
chance of injury in a crash. Four stars
are a 6-10% chance of injury in a crash.
Five stars is less than a 5% chance of injury in a side impact crash. Well now you know what the stars mean but do
you know how they test the cars?
Crash tests are set up crashes to
simulate how safe drivers and passengers are in many different types of
crashes. The insurance institute of for
highway safety and National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration conduct several different tests on every vehicle. Some tests include a 5mph rear bumper
collision, a 40mph front offset collision, front barrier at 35mph, and a side
impact by another car traveling about 38.5mph.
See chart for example crash tests.
(Cars.com) These tests are used
to help make safer cars and to see how different vehicles handle different
crashes.
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Finally, we delve into the topic of recalls. Recalls are released to the public when manufacturers have problems with their products causing them to be unsafe. One large recall, was from Firestone, which recalled over 6 million tires. Gary Crigger, the executive vice president of Bridgestone/Firestone Inc, said “At Bridgestone/ Firestone, nothing is more important to us than the safety of our consumers.” People were able to get their tires replaced free of charge by Firestone. Despite extensive pre-production testing and dramatically improved quality of new cars and trucks these days , recalls are still very much a fact of life for motorists. After finding out your car has been recalled, it’s safe to say you’re not going to be happy. Some recalls involve broken steering system components, wheels falling off, and air bags that explode for no reason. Just hearing that one of these is a possibility is enough to make you think twice of how safe you actually are.
Although automobiles are our main mode of transportation, we have to understand the dangers of driving. People should not and can not stop driving. The prevention of any and all automobile accidents is impossible, but people need to be better informed of the dangers of driving their vehicle.
Citation Page
Seat Belt Laws, “All passenger
vehicles required by federal standards to have seat belts. [Cars made after
1967 and light trucks/vans made after 1971.]”
http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/ClickItorTicket/seatbelt_laws.htm
“Safety Tips” Traction Control, and VSC information from Edmunds.
http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/safety/articles/46352/article.html
Crumple Zones
Article by: Duane Bong
http://www.visionengineer.com/mech/crumple_zones.shtml
Star ratings from cars.com.
Types of crashes from cars.com.
Firestone Recall information.
http://usgovinfo.about.com/blfirestone.htm