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Shopping for a safe car
If you’re like most
people shopping for a new car, safety ranks high among things you're
looking for. Every new car must meet certain federal safety standards,
but that doesn’t mean that all cars are equally safe. There are still
important safety differences, and some vehicles are safer than others.
Many automakers offer safety features beyond the required federal
minimums. The following safety features should be considered when
purchasing a car:
- Crashworthiness
These features reduce the risk of death or serious injury when a crash
occurs. You can get a rating of crashworthiness from the Insurance
Institute for Highway Safety’s Web site ( http://www.highwaysafety.org
).
- Vehicle structural design
A good structural design has a strong occupant compartment, known as
the safety cage, as well as front and rear ends designed to buckle and
bend in a crash to absorb the force of the crash. These crush zones
should keep damage away from the safety cage because once the cage
starts to collapse, the likelihood of injury increases rapidly.
- Vehicle size and weight
The laws of physics dictate that larger and heavier cars are safer than
lighter and smaller ones. Small cars have twice as many occupant deaths
each year as large cars. In crashes involving smaller and larger
vehicles, heavier vehicles drive lighter ones backwards, decreasing the
forces inside the heavier car and increasing them in the lighter car.
- Restraint systems
Belts, airbags and head restraints all work together with a vehicle’s
structure to protect people in serious crashes. Lap/shoulder belts hold
you in place, reducing the chance you’ll slam into something hard or
get ejected from the crashing vehicle. If you aren’t belted, you’ll
continue moving forward until something suddenly stops you—often a hard
interior surface that will cause injuries.
- Shoulder belts are on inertia
reels that allow upper body movement during normal driving, but lock
during hard braking or in a crash. Belt webbing is stored on the reel,
and during a frontal crash any slack in the webbing can allow some
forward movement of your upper body. Then you could strike the steering
wheel, dashboard or windshield. This problem is addressed in some cars
with belt crash tensioners that activate early in a collision to reel
in belt slack and prevent some of the forward movement.
- Airbags and lap/shoulder belts
together are very effective. However in some circumstances, a deploying
airbag can cause serious injuries and even death. The greatest risk of
injury occurs when you are on top of, or very close to an airbag when
it starts to inflate. Choose a car that allows you to reach the gas and
brake pedals comfortably without sitting too close to the steering
wheel. Some cars offer telescoping steering column adjustments that may
help.
- Side airbags are designed
principally to protect your chest. They may also keep your head from
hitting interior or intruding structures.
- Head restraints are required in
the front seats of all new passenger cars to keep your head from being
snapped back, injuring your neck in a rear-end crash. But there are big
differences among head restraints. Some are adjustable, and others are
fixed. They also vary in height and how far they are set back from the
head. To prevent neck injury, a head restraint has to be directly
behind and close to the back of your head. Look for cars that have this
type of restraint. If the restraints are adjustable, make sure they can
be locked into place. Some don’t lock, so they can get pushed down in a
crash.
- Anti-lock brakes
When you brake hard with conventional brakes, the wheels may lock and
cause skidding and a lack of control. Anti-lock brakes pump brakes
automatically many times a second to prevent lockup and allow you to
keep control of the car. If you were trained to brake gently on
slippery roads or pump your brakes to avoid a skid, you may have to
unlearn these habits and use hard, continuous pressure to activate your
antilock brakes. Anti-lock brakes may help you keep steering control,
but they won’t necessarily help you stop more quickly.
- Daytime running lights
Daytime running lights are activated by the ignition switch. They are
typically high-beam headlights at reduced intensity or low-beam lights
at full or reduced power. By increasing the contrast between a vehicle
and its backgrounds and making the vehicles more visible to oncoming
drivers, these lights can prevent daytime accidents.
- On the road experience
Other design characteristics can influence injury risk on the road.
Some small utility vehicles and pickups are prone to rolling over.
"High performance" cars typically have higher-than-average death rates
because drivers are tempted to use excessive speed. Combining a young
driver and a high-performance car can be particularly dangerous.
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