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Top 10 Safety Systems

Lifesaving motoring developments
Mac Demere / autoMedia.com

This year about 42,500 people, give or take 1,000, will die in traffic accidents in the U.S. Though terrible, it
could be a lot worse. Without the advances on our following list of Top 10 Safety Systems, the per-mile death
rate might be the same as 1966. That would mean more than 160,000 would be killed. This year and next year
—and the next. And 1966 was far from the worst for per-mile fatalities.
10. Quick-Response Emergency Care

Of the six million vehicle crashes each year in the U.S., only about 0.6 percent result in fatalities. Part of the
reason: When skilled emergency workers quickly stabilize crash victims and rapidly transport them to
advanced trauma centers, chances for survival increase dramatically.

9. Drunk-Driving Laws and Enforcement

In 1982, more than half of fatal accidents involved a drunk driver. Today, a third of deadly crashes involve a
driver with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 or greater. State-by-state, punishment for driving under the
influence of drugs or alcohol is getting tougher, but it's still minor compared to the long-term suffering that
impaired drivers can cause others, and themselves.

8. Disc Brakes

A car should be able to stop better than it accelerates. That wasn't the case when drum brakes were
widespread. A veteran car-magazine tester tells of a four-wheel-drum-brake-equipped car that could not
perform three consecutive 60-0 mph stops. On the final attempt, the drums overheated and faded so badly
that the car just coasted to a stop. Those of us who experienced the bad old days of drum brakes recall similar
sickening feelings: Descending a mountain grade, negotiating deep water, or stopping from high speed
caused drums to unconditionally surrender. Associated advances include dual brake master-cylinders, which
retain some stopping power when part of the system fails, and ABS (Anti-lock Braking System), which
maximizes the benefits of brakes that can overpower tires. ABS would have its own place on this list except for
one flaw: drivers. They don't use it effectively.

7. Pneumatic, Steel-Belted, Radial Tires

The only thing that allows accident-avoidance systems to function are the four hand-sized areas of rubber
touching the road. Without good tires, useless are disc brakes, ABS, ESC (Electronic Stability Control), and
nimble suspension. Seventy-five years ago, a grandmother's 60-mile journey required the replacement of
more than a half-dozen cut or blown tires. Thirty-five years back, bias-ply tires failed far less frequently, but
traction—wet or dry—was poor. Today's tires are grippy, long-lived, and abuse- and neglect-resistant—to a
degree. Frequently check your tires' air pressure.

6. Deformable Structure

Imagine a driver runs a stoplight directly into your path. It's not a bad crash, except that your hood detaches
and slices back through the passenger compartment like a guillotine. Or the steering column spears through
your chest. Before engineers focused on making cars crashworthy, such bloody occurrences were common.
Today, deformable structure absorbs the energy of a crash without transmitting it to the occupants. Included in
this category is laminated safety glass, perhaps the first automotive safety system.

5. Airbags

Some estimates say airbags save 12,000 lives every year. They prevent you from smashing into steering
wheels, A-pillars and other hard objects. Airbags also help stop basal skull fractures of the type that killed Dale
Earnhardt. Current or "Second-Generation" airbags are "depowered" to cause less injury upon activation while
still providing enough cushioning upon impact to reduce fatalities.

4. Limited-Access, Divided Highways

Dwight Eisenhower did more for traffic safety in the U.S. than any other single person. Motivated partially by
the German autobahn system he experienced after World War II, Ike was a prime motivator for the Interstate
highway system. When evaluated by miles driven, there are about 70 percent fewer fatalities on Interstates as
on other roads. Nostalgia for the two-lane Route 66 escapes us when we remember either being stuck behind
slow-moving, stinky trucks or scared witless when Dad was passing a long line of cars.

3. Stability Control

Computer-assisted Electronic Stability Control (ESC) is better than having racing greats Jeff Gordon or
Michael Schumacher take the wheel in an emergency. That's because you don't have to feed their giant egos
the rest of the time. Stability control (called ESC, DSC, ESP, VSC, VSA, AdvanceTrac, Stabilitrak and other
names) requires no driver action. That's good: In an emergency most drivers fail to do the right thing.
Diplomatic immunity from the laws of physics, ESC is not. Ice, deep water, an under-inflated or worn tire, or
entering a tight turn too fast will still result in a wreck. (Some imprecisely call ESC "anti-rollover" technology.
The only way ESC can prevent a rollover is to keep the vehicle on the pavement. That's okay: Almost all
rollovers are caused by running off the road or hitting something like a curb.)

. Seatbelts

If you're not firmly affixed to the vehicle, nothing—not a NASCAR car or an Abrams M1A2 tank—will protect
you in a crash. The government says seatbelts save about 15,000 lives a year. In recent years, the venerable
seatbelt has enjoyed some timely updates. Pretensioners—some of which employ firework-like pyrotechnic
charges—cinch the belts racecar-tight the instant the car's computer senses a crash. Load limiters—some
built into the belts' webbing and stitching—soften the force. Still, some 7,000 people will die this year because
they weren't wearing seatbelts. Again, buckle up.

1. Computers

Without powerful computers to assist vehicle design and manufacturing, and potent on-board miniature
computers, we'd be driving underpowered, overweight, unreliable cars that spewed pollutants and did little to
protect occupants. That reminds us again of 1966, or 1972. Without computers, ESC and ABS (along with a
host of other driver aids) would not be possible and airbags wouldn't be as effective. However, there is one
type of computer in every vehicle that fails with sickening regularity and can overwhelm other processors.
Engineers call it the "organic software" or you, the driver. Drivers are the weakest link in the automotive safety
system—and engineers are on the verge of inventing replacements.