This is about features that improve your concentration on the roads. Safety design and features help to protect the occupants of a vehicle from serious injury in an accident.
Important safety design features are those, which will help to avoid an accident, protect the occupants in a crash and assist the performance of the driver. Maintenance of your vehicles will ensure good running order and that all safety features are functioning well. Pay particular attention to the condition of your tyres and ensure brakes are functioning correctly with brake pad replacement occurring as necessary.Vehicles should be designed with good field of vision all around and with controls that are within safe and easy reach for the driver.
A vehicle designed with good handling and control can improve performance in an emergency situation. Using your vehicle's safety features correctly can decrease the chances of serious injury in an accident. Seatbelts, Airbags and Anti-Lock Braking Systems (ABS) are considered the most important safety features a vehicle can have. There are many other features that can improve safety and should be considered, depending on the operational requirements of the vehicle. Many safety features can enhance the value of a vehicle on the used car market.
Seatbelts provide the most important protection from serious injury in a motor vehicle accident. Belts should be able to be adjusted to fit the individual wearer. Seatbelt mounting and anchorage allow for adjustment to ensure comfort. There are other design features such as pre-tensioner belts that provide additional safety to the seatbelt retraction system. Three-point seatbelt systems provide better protection than two-point lap belts, which are sometimes fitted to the centre rear position.
Airbags provide a safety barrier between the occupant and the interior of the vehicle. A driver's airbag provides protection from the steering wheel and passenger airbags also provide substantial protection in a crash. The driver should be no closer than thirty centimetres to the steering wheel of a vehicle fitted with a driver's airbag. There are a number of side airbag systems also available to provide some protection from side impact.ABS allows hard braking without the brakes locking up and the vehicle skidding, but only operates effectively under heavy braking or on slippery surfaces. ABS does not reduce the stopping distance and does not provide compensation for speeding or aggressive driving.
Headrests are intended to minimise neck injury, particularly from a rear impact. The headrest should be at least as high as eye level and as close to the back of the head as possible to provide the best support.Seat Height Adjustment allows the driver to gain the best possible field of vision, safe and easy access to the vehicle's controls and can improve driver comfort resulting in better concentration.Steering Wheel Adjustment allows for more control over the wheel and access to controls, as well as contributes to driver comfort.Power Steering enables better control over a vehicle particularly when parking and making sharp turns.
Mirrors: Electronically controlled mirrors allow for easier re-adjustment for individual drivers needs.Air Conditioning: Control of temperature contributes to comfort and therefore to driver concentration. It allows for easy demisting of windows, ensuring good vision.Cargo Barrier: For use in wagons that carry loads to provide protection from objects being thrown into the driver's compartment. In sedans, heavier objects should be placed in the boot to prevent them becoming dangerous projectiles in an accident.Mud flaps reduce loss of visibility to vehicles following behind, by reducing spray in wet conditions.
These are the features that reduce injury in the event of an accident. Modern vehicles should be built with crumple zones, which absorb crash impact in the front and rear of the vehicle rather than in the passenger compartment. The passenger compartment should keep its shape and there should be side impact protection. For example, one car the Mazda has all these safety precautions in place in case an accident occurs:* Intrusion minimizing brake pedal to help reduce foot and leg injuries in a frontal collision* Front seats designed to minimize whiplash and the chance of neck injury in a rear-end collision* ISOFIX-compliant child seat anchors with top tether are standard* Soft, impact absorbing interior to help reduce secondary impacts in a collision* Reinforced cabin-trunk bulkhead to prevent luggage intrusion* Improved bonnet construction to reduce injury to pedestrians. The aluminium bonnet has cone-type construction to absorb and cushion impacts in the event of a car-pedestrian accident.Crash worthiness is particularly sound at the vehicle's sides, which, in spite of the absence of centre pillars, exhibit crash safety on a par with traditional four-door sedans.
This is achieved with innovative door reinforcements and locking mechanisms that form built-in pillars when the doors are locked in position. Also, side impact bars are optimally positioned to efficiently distribute impact energy.Active Safety measures include: - To help maximize stopping performance it is equipped with four-wheel anti-lock brakes (4W-ABS) and Electronic Brake Distribution (EBD) as standard. Additionally, Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) is available on all models.
DSC combines 4W-ABS and traction control to maintain a stable vehicle attitude when cornering on slippery surfaces or in an emergency manoeuvre. What's more it is a switchable system that can be shut off to enable advanced driving techniques when conditions are suitable.On vehicles, safety aspects include, seat belts, airbags, SIPS, crumple zones, ABS brakes, etc. etc. the level of safety features varies a great deal, it's up to the individual what priority is placed on safety features, often this will be determined by the cost factor.Crush zones and safety cagesIn frontal, rear and offset crashes, modern vehicles protect occupants by absorbing crash energy and reducing the forces transmitted to the driver and passengers.
The front and rear of a vehicle act as crush zones designed to crumple in a controlled and progressive manner, allowing the occupant compartment to decelerate more slowly. Slower deceleration means less force reaches the occupants, so there is a lower chance of injury. The occupant compartment is a robust safety cage that diverts and dissipates crash energy and preserves the occupants' 'survival space' as much as possible. The safety cage should include strong pillars to stop the roof from collapsing in rollover crashes, as well as barriers to prevent the wheels, bonnet or engine intruding into the occupant compartment.
Door locks and hinges also form part of the safety cage and should remain intact so occupants are not thrown from the vehicle.Frontal impact protectionThese standards ensure the front crush zone; safety cage and other occupant protection features work together to provide a prescribed level of driver and passenger safety in a frontal crash.Side impact protectionSide impact crashes can be particularly dangerous because there is no room for large crush zones to protect an occupant from crash forces. The door can be smashed into an occupant or the occupant's head may be struck, causing potentially fatal injuries. To minimise this danger, most new cars have sturdy side intrusion beams, cells, bars or other protection within the door structure. This provides a solid energy-absorbing barrier, while the safety cage helps to divert forces away from the occupant.
Most vehicles also have padding on the inside door panels. This padding should be effective at absorbing impact energy, rather than merely cosmetic. Some vehicles have crushable structures in the doors to further absorb energy. An increasing number of manufacturers install side air bags in some of their models. The side air bags deploy from the seat, the roof, the door or a pillar and protect an occupant's head and upper body. They must deploy faster than air bags designed for frontal impact protection, as forces will reach the occupant sooner in a side-on crash.
Although side air bags are currently uncommon, the significant protection they offer to an occupant's head, chest, abdomen and pelvis in a side-on crash makes a car equipped with this technology worth considering.Safety beltsThree-point lap and shoulder safety belts are the best means of occupant protection in almost all types of crash. Wearing a safety belt can halve the risk of being injured or killed in a crash.Safety belts offer protection in three key ways:* They prevent or minimise the 'second impact' in a crash - the impact of the occupants against the vehicle interior and each other. It is this second impact that causes injuries and fatalities.* They stop the wearer from being thrown from the vehicle.
* They help absorb the wearer's inertial energy, allowing the wearer to slow at a rate similar to the occupant compartment.In a 50 km/h crash, an average-sized occupant not wearing a safety belt would hit the vehicle interior with a force of three and a half tonnes. It is preferable that three-point lap and shoulder safety belts are installed in every seating position in a vehicle, although this is not always possible in the centre rear seat of some cars. While two-point lap safety belts are much better than wearing no restraint, they do not provide the same protection as three-point safety belts.Safety belts should fit the wearer's body without any slack. The safety belt retractor usually makes this adjustment for the wearer and locks the safety belt in place if there is sudden movement.
Adjustable safety belt anchorages allow the shoulder sash to be moved higher or lower so that the safety belt can be worn more comfortably and safely. Although safety belts cannot stop forward movement completely, new technology designed as part of the vehicle's frontal impact protection system can further improve their effectiveness at restraining occupants.* Webbing clamps grab the safety belt webbing to prevent more of the safety belt reeling out as it tightens on the spool in a crash.* Pretensioners use a spring, compressed gas or small explosive charge that activates on impact to pull the safety belt tight before the occupant starts to move.* Unloaders allow the safety belt to slacken in a controlled way so the wearer can slow progressively while still being safely restrained.
Remember that individual safety belt features by themselves do not necessarily make a vehicle safer. Safety belt design and technology has to be integrated into a vehicle's overall occupant protection system to be effective. It is a vehicle's compliance with a performance-based frontal impact occupant protection standard that is important, not the presence or absence of particular safety belt features. However within the range of a single model of vehicle, the addition of these items will increase the level of protection over the base model.Air bagsAn air bag is a supplementary restraint that works in combination with a safety belt to protect an occupant in a frontal crash. It is stored in the steering wheel hub or dashboard and inflates very rapidly in a split second after impact.
As an occupant moves forward in a crash, the air bag protects them in several ways:* It slows the occupant's deceleration by deflating at a controlled rate. This does not mean it takes a long time for an air bag to deflate; inflation and deflation occurs faster than a person can blink.* It prevents the occupant's head and chest from striking the steering wheel, dashboard or top of the windscreen.* There is a large surface area to restrain the occupant's forward movement compared to a safety belt alone, so compression of the occupant's chest is reduced.Air bags are designed to supplement safety belts, not replace them.
Some air bags will only deploy in crashes severe enough to threaten safety-belted occupants. Air bags are of limited benefit in side impact (unless they are side air bags), rear impact or roll-over crashes, or in crashes where there is more than one collision. A safety belt can protect an occupant in all of these crashes. Any driver or passenger in an air bag-equipped vehicle must still wear a safety belt for their own protection.
There are several misconceptions about air bags. Not all air bags are the same; there are different sizes for different markets. Driver's air bags in European cars are usually about 30-45 litres, whereas American models may be up to 70 litres. Passenger air bags are typically much bigger. Air bags cannot be added to a vehicle like some other equipment.
They must be designed to work in conjunction with the safety system of a specific vehicle model. An air bag will not block the driver's vision in a crash - it inflates and deflates in approximately one tenth of a second. Nor are air bags like soft pillows - to provide protection in a crash they must inflate incredibly quickly, which means the front of an air bag will deploy towards an occupant at between 160 to 320 km/h.Because of this deployment speed, there is the potential of injury from an air bag. New types of air bag deploy less aggressively, and air bags under development detect the size and position of occupants or take account of different crash speeds and adjust air bag deployment to offer the best protection.
There are several simple ways that occupants can avoid the risk of injury from an air bag:* Always wear a safety belt.* Do not sit too close to the steering wheel or slide the seat a long way forward. Shorter drivers should sit back from the steering wheel, but in a position that still gives them full control of the vehicle.* Do not rest anything over the air bag cover, nor place anything between the air bag and an occupant (except a safety belt).* Never put a rear-facing infant restraint in the front seat of a vehicle with a passenger air bag.* Read the vehicle manual for any other information regarding the vehicle's air bag or air bags.* If you buy an air bag-equipped vehicle, follow these precautions as well as any advice printed on warning labels in the vehicle.Despite some risks, air bags are passive safety features that have reduced the injuries and saved the lives of thousands of people in serious crashes.I believe that if these measures were put as standard on all cars produced, and the price of the cars with all the added safety features reduced, then a lot more people would be able to afford to buy them and so more people would be driving safer cars, resulting in less deaths from Road Traffic Accidents.
