Automobile safety

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Automobile safety is the study and practice of vehicle design, construction, and equipment to minimise the occurrence and consequences of automobile accidents. (Road traffic safety more broadly includes roadway design.)

Improvements in roadway and automobile design have steadily reduced injury and death rates in all first world countries. Nevertheless, auto collisions are the leading cause of injury-related deaths, an estimated total of 1.2 million in 2004, or 25% of the total from all causes.


Occupational driving

Work-related roadway crashes are the leading cause of death from traumatic injuries in the U.S. workplace. They accounted for nearly 12,000 deaths between 1992 and 2000. Deaths and injuries from these roadway crashes result in increased costs to employers and lost productivity in addition to their toll in human suffering. Truck drivers tend to endure higher fatality rates than workers in other occupations, but concerns about motor vehicle safety in the workplace are not limited to those surrounding the operation of large trucks. Workers outside the motor carrier industry routinely operate company-owned vehicles for deliveries, sales and repair calls, client visits, and countless other job tasks. In these instances, the employer providing the vehicle generally plays a major role in setting safety, maintenance, and training policy. As in non-occupational driving, young drivers are especially at risk. In the workplace, 45% of all fatal injuries to workers under age 18 between 1992 and 2000 in the United States resulted from transportation incidents.


Active and passive safety

The terms "active" and "passive" are used in several seemingly-conflicting ways in the context of automobile safety. "Active safety" is often used to refer to crash avoidance and "passive safety" to crashworthiness. However, the terms may also be applied to the vehicle occupant's involvement in the function of the safety device or system. Under such nomenclature, active safety devices and systems are those which the vehicle occupant must act to make functional, as for example by fastening a seat belt. Passive safety devices and systems are those — such as air bags — which operate without any input or action from the vehicle occupant. Terminological conflict can arise from the fact that passive safety devices and systems — those requiring no input or action by the vehicle occupant — can themselves operate in an active manner. An example is active head restraints, which move to a position optimal for preventing neck injury when a collision is imminent. Vehicle safety professionals are generally careful in their syntax to avoid this sort of confusion.


Crash avoidance

Crash avoidance systems and devices help the driver — and, increasingly, help the vehicle itself — to avoid a collision. This category includes:

Driver assistance

A subset of crash avoidance is driver assistance systems, which help the driver to detect ordinarily-hidden obstacles and to control the vehicle. Driver assistance systems include:

Crashworthiness

Ferrari F430 steering wheel with airbag

Crashworthiness systems and devices prevent or reduce the severity of injuries when a crash is imminent or actually happening. Much research is carried out using anthropomorphic crash test dummies.

  • Seatbelts limit the forward motion of an occupant, stretch to slow down the occupant's deceleration in a crash, and prevent occupants being ejected from the vehicle.
  • Airbags inflate to cushion the impact of a vehicle occupant with various parts of the vehicle's interior.
  • Laminated windshields remain in one piece when impacted, preventing penetration of unbelted occupants' heads and maintaining a minimal but adequate transparency for control of the car immediately following a collision. Tempered glass side and rear windows break into granules with minimally sharp edges, rather than splintering into jagged fragments as ordinary glass does.
  • Crumple zones absorb and dissipate the force of a collision, displacing and diverting it away from the passenger compartment and reducing the impact force on the vehicle occupants. Vehicles will include a front, rear and maybe side crumple zones (like Volvo SIPS) too.
  • Side impact protection beams.
  • Collapsible universally jointed steering columns, (with the steering system mounted behind the front axle - not in the front crumple zone), reduce the risk and severity of driver impalement on the column in a frontal crash.
  • Pedestrian protection systems.
  • Padding of the instrument panel and other interior parts of the vehicle likely to be struck by the occupants during a crash.


Post-crash survivability

Post-crash survivability devices and systems help minimise the chances that vehicle occupants who survive a crash will be injured or killed by secondary effects of the collision, such as fire. Examples include technical standards for vehicle fuel system integrity and fire resistance and retardance of vehicle interior materials.Advanced Automatic Collision Notification systems will alert authorities automatically after an accident has occurred. Fiat in the 1990s Fiat Punto introduced an automatic engine compartment fire extinguisher system.


Pedestrian safety

1974 Mini Clubman Experimental Safety Vehicle featuring a "pedestrian-friendly" front end.

Since at least the early 1970s, attention has also been given to vehicle design regarding the safety of pedestrians in car-pedestrian collisions. Proposals in Europe would require cars sold there to have a minimum/maximum hood (bonnet) height. From 2006 the use of "bull bars", a fashion on 4x4s and SUVs, became illegal.


Conspicuity

A Swedish study found that pink cars are involved in the fewest accidents, with black cars being most often involved in crashes (Land transport NZ 2005).

In Auckland New Zealand, a study found that there was a significantly lower rate of serious injury in silver cars; with higher rates in brown, black, and green cars. (Furness et al., 2003)

The Vehicle Color Study, conducted by Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) and published in 2007, analysed 855,258 accidents occurring between 1987 and 2004 in the Australian states of Victoria and Western Australia that resulted in injury or in a vehicle being towed away. The study analysed risk by light condition. It found that in daylight black cars were 12% more likely than white to be involved in an accident, followed by grey cars at 11%, silver cars at 10%, and red and blue cars at 7%, with no other colors found to be significantly more or less risky than white. At dawn or dusk the risk ratio for black cars jumped to 47% more likely than white, and that for silver cars to 15%. In the hours of darkness only red and silver cars were found to be significantly more risky than white, by 10% and 8% respectively.

Daytime running lamp that have been standard on Swedish cars since the 1970s, are soon to be mandatory across the entire EU.


History

Automobile safety may have become an issue almost from the beginning of mechanised road vehicle development. The second steam-powered "Fardier" (artillery tractor), created by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot in 1771, is reported by some to have crashed into a wall during its demonstration run. However according to Georges Ageon, the earliest mention of this occurrence dates from 1801 and it does not feature in contemporary accounts.

One of the earliest recorded automobile fatalities was Mary Ward, on August 31, 1869 in Parsonstown, Ireland.

In the 1930s, plastic surgeon Claire L. Straith and physician C. J. Strickland advocated the use of seat belts and padded dashboards. Strickland founded the Automobile Safety League of America.

In 1934, GM performed the first barrier crash test.

In 1942, Hugh De Haven published the classic Mechanical analysis of survival in falls from heights of fifty to one hundred and fifty feet.

In 1949 SAAB incorporated aircraft safety thinking into automobiles making the Saab 92 the first production SAAB car with a safety cage, and the American Tucker was built with the world's first padded dashboard.

In 1956, Ford tried unsuccessfully to interest Americans in purchasing safer cars with their Lifeguard safety package. (Its attempt nevertheless earns Ford Motor Trend's "Car of the Year" award for 1956.)

In 1958, the United Nations established the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, an international standards body advancing auto safety. Many of the most life saving safety innovations, like seat belts and roll cage construction were brought to market under its auspices. That same year, Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin invented and patented the three-point lap and shoulder seat belt, which became standard equipment on all Volvo cars in 1959. Over the next several decades, three-point safety belts were gradually mandated in all vehicles by regulators throughout the industrialised world.

In 1966, the U.S. established the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) with automobile safety one of its purposes. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was created as an independent organization on April 1, 1967, but was reliant on the DOT for administration and funding. However, in 1975 the organization was made completely independent by the Independent Safety Board Act (in P.L. 93-633; 49 U.S.C. 1901).

Volvo developed the first rear-facing child seat in 1964 and introduced its own booster seat in 1978.

Consumer information label for a vehicle with at least one US NCAP star rating

In 1979, NHTSA began crash-testing popular cars and publishing the results, to inform consumers and encourage manufacturers to improve the safety of their vehicles. Initially, the US NCAP crash tests examined compliance with the occupant-protection provisions of FMVSS 208. Over the subsequent years, this NHTSA program was gradually expanded in scope. In 1997, the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) was established to test new vehicles' safety performance and publish the results for vehicle shoppers' information. The NHTSA crash tests are presently operated and published as the U.S. branch of the international NCAP programme.

In 1984, New York State passed the first US law requiring seat belt use in passenger cars. Seat belt laws have since been adopted by all 50 states, and NHTSA estimates increased seat belt use as a result save 10,000 per year in the USA.

In 1986, the central 3rd brake light was mandated in North America. Over the next 15 years, most of the world's other jurisdictions mandated the 3rd brake lamp as well.

In 1995, the IIHS begins frontal offset crash tests.

In 1997, EuroNCAP is founded.

In 2003, the IIHS begins conducting side impact crash tests.

In 2004, NHTSA released new tests designed to test the rollover risk of new cars and SUVs. Only the Mazda RX-8 got a 5-star rating.

In 2009, Citroën become the first manufacturer to feature "Snowmotion", an Intelligent Anti Skid system developed in conjunction with Bosch, which gives drivers a level of control in extreme ice or snow conditions similar to a 4x4.


Safety trends

Despite technological advances, about 40,000 people die every year in the U.S. Although the fatality rates per vehicle registered and per vehicle distance travelled have steadily decreased since the advent of significant vehicle and driver regulation, the raw number of fatalities generally increases as a function of rising population and more vehicles on the road. However, sharp rises in the price of fuel and related driver behavioural changes are reducing 2007-8 highway fatalities in the U.S. to below the 1961 fatality count.

International comparison

In 1996, the U.S. had about 2 deaths per 10,000 motor vehicles, compared to 1.9 in Germany, 2.6 in France, and 1.5 in the UK. In 1998, there were 3,421 fatal accidents in the UK, the fewest since 1926.

The sizable traffic safety lead enjoyed by the USA since the 1960s had narrowed significantly by 2002, with the US improvement percentages lagging in 16th place behind those of Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Iceland, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland in terms of deaths per thousand vehicles, while in terms of deaths per 100 million vehicle miles travelled, the USA had dropped from first place to tenth place.

Government-collected data, such as that from the U.S. Fatality Analysis Reporting System, show other countries achieving safety performance improvements over time greater than those achieved in the U.S.:

1979 Fatalities 2002 Fatalities Percent Change
United States 51,093 42,815 -16.2%
Great Britain 6,352 3,431 -46.0%
Canada 5,863 2,936 -49.9%
Australia 3,508 1,715 -51.1%

Research on the trends in use of heavy vehicles indicate that a significant difference between the U.S. and other countries is the relatively high prevalence of pickup trucks and SUVs in the U.S. A 2003 study by the U.S. Transportation Research Board found that SUVs and pickup trucks are significantly less safe than passenger cars, that imported-brand vehicles tend to be safer than American-brand vehicles, and that the size and weight of a vehicle has a significantly smaller effect on safety than the quality of the vehicle's engineering.

The level of large commercial truck traffic has substantially increased since the 1960s, while highway capacity has not kept pace with the increase in large commercial truck traffic on U.S. highways.

However, other factors exert significant influence; Canada has lower roadway death and injury rates despite a vehicle mix comparable to that of the U.S. Nevertheless, the widespread use of truck-based vehicles as passenger carriers is correlated with roadway deaths and injuries not only directly by dint of vehicular safety performance per se, but also indirectly through the relatively low fuel costs that facilitate the use of such vehicles in North America; motor vehicle fatalities decline as fuel prices increase.

NHTSA has issued relatively few regulations since the mid 1980s; most of the vehicle-based reduction in vehicle fatality rates in the U.S. during the last third of the 20th Century were gained by the initial NHTSA safety standards issued from 1968 to 1984 and subsequent voluntary changes in vehicle design and construction by vehicle manufacturers.


Pregnant women

When pregnant, women should continue to use seatbelts and airbags properly. A University of Michigan study found that "unrestrained or improperly restrained pregnant women are 5.7 times more likely to have an adverse fetal outcome than properly restrained pregnant women". If seatbelts are not long enough, extensions are available from the car manufacturer or an aftermarket supplier.


Infants and children

Children present significant challenges in engineering and producing safe vehicles, because most children are significantly smaller and lighter than most adults. Safety devices and systems designed and optimised to protect adults — particularly calibration-sensitive devices like airbags and active seat belts — can be ineffective or hazardous to children. In recognition of this, many medical professionals and jurisdictions recommend or require that children under a particular age, height, and/or weight ride in a child seat and/or in the back seat, as applicable. In Sweden, for instance, a child or an adult shorter than 140 cm is legally forbidden to ride in a place with an active airbag in front of it.

Child safety locks and driver-controlled power window lockout controls prevent children from opening doors and windows from inside the vehicle.

Infants left in cars

Very young children can perish from heat or cold if left unattended in a parked car, whether deliberately or through absentmindedness. In June 2009, a 1 year old girl was accidentally forgotten in a car in Denmark on an extremely hot day and died from heat exhaustion.

Teenage drivers

In the UK, a full driving licence can be had at age 17, and most areas in the United States will issue a full driver's license at the age of 16, and all within a range between 14 and 18. In addition to being relatively inexperienced, teen drivers are also cognitively immature, compared to other drivers. This combination leads to a relatively high crash rate among this demographic.

In some areas, new drivers' vehicles must bear a warning sign to alert other drivers that the vehicle is being driven by an inexperienced and learning driver, giving them opportunity to be more cautious and to encourage other drivers to give novices more leeway.

Some countries, such as Australia, the United States, Canada and New Zealand, have graduated levels of driver's licence, with special rules. In Italy, the maximum speed and power of vehicles driven by new drivers is restricted.


See also

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External links

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