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CAR SAFETY INFORMATION
Safety Belts
Automakers are providing safety belts worldwide.
For all the safety technology available, safety belts are the most effective safety tools ever implemented. Making them universally standard is critical now in order to prevent potential increases in traffic fatalities, as developing countries increase auto use 18 percent annually. In 2006, 17 automakers joined together to commit to advancing safety belts worldwide.
Safety belts must be buckled to save lives.
The most significant and immediate opportunities to reduce injuries are through changes to driver behavior – especially buckling safety belts. Automakers have committed to various initiatives to support safety belt use, including working with governments to encourage the adoption of and effective enforcement of laws requiring safety belt usage.
Road safety is a shared responsibility.
Automakers are strongly committed to being part of the solution, and other stakeholders have an extremely important share in road safety. Road safety is built on three pillars: the vehicle, the road user and the infrastructure. Overall, about 95 percent of road accidents can be attributed to driver behavior. Traffic rules must be established and obeyed by the general public, following education and enforcement campaigns. Road construction and maintenance must follow the best international practice. Only through a combination of efforts by all parties involved can road safety be further improved and mobility remain sustainable.
There is absolutely no doubt that the single most effective thing that every vehicle occupant can do to help save their own life if they have an accident, is to wear their safety belt. Safety belts hold the occupant, preventing ejection from the car and hitting an outside obstacle. The forces at play in even an average low speed accident are tremendous and people who think they can restrain themselves by firmly holding the steering wheel would have to be able to lift a mass equivalent to more than 30 times their own, which clearly would be superhuman!
Many vehicles are now equipped with most sophisticated safety belt technologies, such as pre-tensioners (tightening the belt in the very early phases of the accident - or even before the accident occurs!) and energy absorbing belts (gradually absorbing the deceleration energy, thereby avoiding chest compression).
Chils passenger Safety
If you’re carrying children in a vehicle, they need a suitable restraint – either a properly fitted child seat, or a booster cushion to go with the adult belt.
New systems to attach the child safety seat in the vehicle have been developed and are now widely available. These systems provide a standard interface between the child seat and the car seat. This interface consists of rigid anchorages, with hooks on the child seat connecting to bars in the vehicle (ISOFIX system) or flexible, with belts on the child seat connected to the bars in the vehicle (LATCH system)
Global Efforts
Globally harmonized safety standards benefit all countries.
Road safety worldwide will be best served if viewed from a global perspective. International harmonization will help ensure that vehicles meet the same basic specifications worldwide and are equipped with the necessary features. As the accredited representative of the worldwide vehicle industry, OICA is now working with governments and the UN to develop global technical regulations on a wide range of safety issues, notably pedestrian protection.
New Technologies
Automakers are continually making safety technology advancements.
Automobile manufacturers have developed today’s automobiles with greatly improved safety systems and many important safety features, making new vehicles safer than ever. Vehicle braking, stability and lighting have been improved far beyond the levels required by legislation, by a mixture of technical evolution and advanced technology, making cars more able to avoid accidents. Accident survivability has also been improved well ahead of legislation by designing cars to deform in a controlled way in frontal, side and rear impacts and by the addition of advanced restraint and airbag systems. Tomorrow’s safety technologies are in research and development and in some cases even on the production line today.
