NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Car safety

Car safety is the avoidance of car accidents or the minimization of harmful effects of accidents, in particular as pertaining to human life and health. Special safety features have been built into cars for years, some for the safety of car's occupants only, some for the safety of others. The result of excessive speed, this cement truck rolls over into the front garden of a house. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Road traffic injuries represent about 25% of worldwide injury-related deaths (the leading cause) with an estimated 1.26 million deaths in 2000 (Peden 2002). Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2560x1920, 2399 KB) Copyright Â© 2005 David Monniaux File links The following pages link to this file: Car safety Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2560x1920, 2399 KB) Copyright Â© 2005 David Monniaux File links The following pages link to this file: Car safety Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ...

Major factors in accidents include driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs; inattentive driving; driving while fatigued or unconscious; encounters with road hazards such as snow, potholes, and crossing animals; or reckless driving. Drunk driving (drink driving in the UK) or drinking and driving is the act of operating a motor vehicle after having consumed alcohol (i. ... Recreational drug use is the use of psychoactive drugs for recreational purposes rather than for work, medical or spiritual purposes, although the distinction is not always clear. ...

History

Car safety became an issue almost immediately after the invention of the automobile, when Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot crashed his steam-powered "Fardier" against a wall in 1771. One of the earliest recorded automobile fatalities was Mary Ward, on August 31, 1869 in Parsonstown, Ireland. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (26 February 1725 â€“ 2 October 1804) was a French inventor who built what may have been the worlds first self-propelled mechanical vehicle or automobile. ... 1771 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Scientist Mary Ward Mary Ward (b. ... August 31 is the 243rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (244th in leap years), with 122 days remaining. ... 1869 (MDCCCLXIX) is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 53. ...

In the 1950´s, Mercedes-Benz made the first crash tests [1]. This page is about the Mercedes-Benz brand of automobiles and trucks from the DaimlerChrysler automobile manufacturer. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

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. 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate co-operation in international law, international security, economic development, and social equity. ... The World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations is a working party of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). ... link titleThe word international can mean: Between nations or encompassing several nations. ... A three-point seat belt. ... A specially constructed frame built around the cab of a vehicle to protect the driver from being injured in an accident, particularly in the event of a roll-over. ...

In 1966, the US 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. Established October 15, 1966 Activated April 1, 1967 Secretary Mary Peters Deputy Secretary Maria Cino Budget $58 billion (2004 estimate) Employees 58,622 (2004 estimate) The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) is a Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with transport. ... The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is a U.S. government independent organization responsible for investigation of accidents involving aviation, highway, marine, pipelines and railroads in the United States. ... April 1 is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 274 days remaining. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

The NTSB and its European equivalent, EuroNCAP have each issued independent safety tests for all new automobiles, without reciprocity. World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is one of the six inhabited continents of the Earth. ... EuroNCAP, the European New Car Assessment Programme, is a safety assessment programme for automobiles supported by several European governments, many major manufacturers and motoring organisations across the world. ... The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA, often pronounced nit-suh) is a U.S. Government agency, part of the Department of Transportation, responsible for setting safety standards and verifying compliance by automobile manufacturers. ...

In June, 2004 the NTSB released new tests designed to test the rollover risk of new cars and SUVs. Only the Mazda RX-8 got a 5-star rating. However, the correlation between official crash test results and road deaths in vehicles is not exact. An alternative method of assessing vehicle safety is to study the road accident statistics on a model-by-model basis. 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section may be confusing or unclear for some readers, and should be edited to rectify this. ... The Mazda RX-8 is a sports car manufactured by Mazda Motor Corporation. ... Although various theoretical crash testing scenarios are popular in assessing car safety in UK the Department of Transport publish the actual level of road deaths in each type of car. ...

Despite technological advances, the death toll of car accidents remains high: about 40,000 people die every year in the US. While this number increases annually in line with rising population and increased travel, the rate per capita and per vehicle miles travelled decreases. In 1996 the US had about 2 deaths per 10,000 motor vehicles, comparable to 1.9 in Germany, 2.6 in France, and 1.5 in the UK [2]. In 1998 there were 3,421 fatal accidents in the UK, the fewest since 1926 [3].

Color

A Swedish study found pink cars safest, with black cars most likely to be involved in crashes, and also showed Saab to be the "safest car in Sweden [In terms of passive safety]" (Land transport NZ 2005). Saab is an aircraft and automobile concern based in Sweden, founded 1937 in LinkÃ¶ping. ...

An Auckland, New Zealand study found a significantly lower risk of serious injury in silver cars; with high risks for brown, black, and green cars. (Furness et al, 2003) General Name, Symbol, Number silver, Ag, 47 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 5, d Appearance lustrous white metal Atomic mass 107. ...

Passenger safety

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" [4]. If seatbelts are not long enough, extensions are available from the car manufacturer or an aftermarket supplier.

Children

Car safety is especially critical for young children, as car safety is generally designed for normal sized adults. Safety features that could save an adult can actually cause more damage to a child than if the feature was not there. It is important to review with others, who may be supervising the child, the rules for car safety. All children age 12 and under should ride in the back seat. Also children weighing less than 85 lbs should be in the back seat. This is especially the case if there are airbags in the front seat, as airbags are only designed to protect adults and may injure children. That is not just an opinion but is also law in many of the U.S. states and other countries. The Center for Injury Research and Prevention at The Children's Hospital Of Philadelphia has developed a website for parents and caregivers with extensive information about transporting children safely in automobiles. If your car is purchased in a state with any warnings (example: Air bag warning or booster seat warnings) the warnings should be considered as law in that state. This website is available at www.chop.edu/carseat

Child safety locks prevent children from accidentally opening doors from inside the vehicle, even if the door is unlocked. The door, once unlocked, can then be opened only from the outside. To find any laws about children car saftey contact your local courthouse. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Infants

Newborn babies should be put in a car seat until they weigh at least 20 or 22 pounds (10 or 11 kg). These carriers are designed to be placed in the rear seat and face towards the rear with the baby looking towards the back window. Some of these carriers are "Convertibles" which can also be used forward facing for older children. With infants, these should only be used facing the rear. Harness straps should be at or below shoulder level. A human infant The word Infant derives from the Latin in-fans, meaning unable to speak. ... For transportation of a baby or toddler there are special vehicles, special car seats, and devices for carrying. ...

A rear-facing infant restraint must never be put in the front seat of a vehicle with a front passenger air bag. A rear-facing infant restraint places an infant's head close to the air bag module, which can cause severe head injuries or death if the air bag deploys. Modern cars include a switch to turn off the airbag system of the passenger seat, in which case a child-supporting seat must be installed.

Toddlers

Toddlers over 1 year old and between 10 and 20 kg (20 and 40 pounds) should be placed in forward facing child seats or convertibles placed in the rear seat. Harness straps should be at or above the child's shoulders. In Scandinavia the recommendation is to use rearward facing seats up to the age of 4 or 5 (size of seat permitting), and you will find that very few children under the age of 4 face forward. It has been proven many times that it is far safer to face rearward in an accident. What has happened is that countries outside scandinavia were lacking in child safety at all, so forward facing child restraints are far better than what used to be the case. Scandinavia on the other hand has along tradition of child protection. A male toddler A female toddler A toddler is a child between the ages of one and three years old, although some may consider a toddler to be between two and five. ...

Young children

Children who weigh less than 80 pounds (40 kg), are younger than 8, or are shorter than 4 ft 9 in (1.4 m) are advised to use belt positioning booster seats which raise them to a level that allows seat belts to work effectively. These seats are forward facing and must be used with both lap and shoulder belts. A Child Restraint system, also commonly referred to as a child safety seat, or a car seat is a restraint which is secured to the seat of an automobile equipped with safety harnesses to hold a child in the event of a crash. ...

Make sure the lap belt fits low and tight across the lap/upper thigh area and the shoulder belt fits snug crossing the chest and shoulder to avoid abdominal injuries.

There are two main types of booster seats. If the car's back seat is lower than the child's ears, a high back booster seat should be used to help protect the child's head and neck. If the car's seat back is higher than the child's ears, a backless booster seat can be used.

Teenage Drivers

Most areas in the United States will issue a full driver's license at the age of 16, with a range between 14 and 18 [5]; but in addition to being relatively inexperienced, teen drivers are also cognitively immature, compared to other drivers. This combination leads to an increased risk of accidents among this demographic. Brain Immaturity Could Explain Teen Crash Rate, Washington Post, February 1, 2005 Several resources are available to help teen drivers including TeenDriving.comand AutoExtra.com's kids first car tips and recommendations.

Safety features

Active safety

To make driving safer and prevent accidents from occurring, cars may have the following active safety features:

Turn signals (US English) or indicators (British English) are a set of lights on a vehicle (be it a car, truck/lorry, tractor, motorcycle, etc. ... A Center High-Mounted Stop Lamp (usually seen abbreviated as CHMSL) is a third stop lamp, or brake light, mounted on the rear of a vehicle. ... Steering is the term applied to the collection of components, linkages, etc. ... DSR means: Dynamic steering response. ... Power steering is a system for reducing the steering effort on cars by using an external power source to assist in turning the wheels. ... Traction control systems, on current production vehicles, are typically (but not necessarily) electro-hydraulic systems designed to prevent loss of traction (and therefore the control of the vehicle) when excessive throttle or steering is applied by the driver. ... Hill-Holder is a name for the mechanism invented by Studebaker that holds the brake until the clutch is at the friction point, making it easier to start up hills from a stop in manual transmission automobiles. ... Four wheel drive or 4x4, is a type of four wheeled vehicle drivetrain configuration that enables all four wheels to receive power from the engine simultaneously in order to provide maximum traction. ... A differential can mean one of several things: Differential (mathematics) Differential (mechanics) Differential signaling is used to carry high speed digital signals. ... Oversteer is the phenomenon ocurred in an automobile when the rear-end of it doesnÂ´t follow the trajectory of the front-end tending to overtake this one causing the car to spin. ... Understeer is a term for a car handling condition during cornering in which the circular path of the vehicles motion is of a markedly greater diameter than the circle indicated by the direction its wheels are pointed. ... Front wheel drive is the most common form of engine/transmission layout used in modern passenger cars, where the engine drives the front wheels. ... Rear wheel drive was a common form of engine/transmission layout used in automobiles throughout the 20th century. ... Reverse backup sensors Reverse backup sensors - also known as reverse parking sensors, reverse parking systems, and reverse backing systems - are a technology that allows the driver of a car, truck, van or commercial vehicle to be alerted to nearby objects in their path. ... Electronic Stability Control (ESC) is the generic term for systems designed to improve a vehicles handling, particularly at the limits where the driver might lose control of the vehicle. ... Understeer is a term for a car handling condition during cornering in which the circular path of the vehicles motion is of a markedly greater diameter than the circle indicated by the direction its wheels are pointed. ... Oversteer is the phenomenon ocurred in an automobile when the rear-end of it doesnÂ´t follow the trajectory of the front-end tending to overtake this one causing the car to spin. ... Look up stability in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A lane departure warning system is a mechanism designed to warn a car driver when his or her vehicle begins to move out of its lane (unless a turn signal is on in that direction) on freeways and arterial roads. ... A lane departure warning system is a mechanism designed to warn a car driver when his or her vehicle begins to move out of its lane (unless a turn signal is on in that direction) on freeways and arterial roads. ... A headlight or headlamp is a light, usually attached to the front of a vehicle such as a car, with the purpose of illuminating the road ahead during periods of low visibility, such as night or precipitation. ... Car handling and vehicle handling is a description of the way wheeled vehicles perform transverse to their direction of motion, particularly during cornering and swerving. ... A rollover in Sydney, Australia on Christmas day, 2001. ... Ride quality refers to the degree of protection offered vehicle occupants from uneven elements in the road surface, or the terrain if driving off-road. ... The word fatigue is used in everyday living to describe a range of afflictions, varying from a general state of lethargy to a specific work induced burning sensation within ones muscles. ... A tire or tyre (see spelling differences and etymological origins) is a device covering the circumference of a wheel. ... Hysteresis is a property of systems (usually physical systems) that do not instantly follow the forces applied to them, but react slowly, or do not return completely to their original state: that is, systems whose states depend on their immediate history. ... Latex being collected from a tapped rubber tree Rubber is an elastic hydrocarbon polymer which occurs as a milky colloidal suspension (known as latex) in the sap of several varieties of plants. ... // A run flat tire is a pneumatic vehicle tire that is designed to resist the effects of deflation and to enable the vehicle to continue to be driven â€” albeit at reduced speeds (i. ... The blue cars driver sees the green car through his mirrors but cannot see the red car without turning to check his blind spot. ... This long range RADAR antenna, known as ALTAIR, is used to detect and track space objects in conjunction with ABM testing at the Ronald Reagan Test Site on the Kwajalein atoll[1]. RADAR is a system that uses radio waves to determine and map the location, direction, and/or speed... Wireless vehicle safety communications is a possible aid to car safety and road safety. ... Night-vision is seeing in the dark. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Vigilance control. ... A penalty switch is a device that ensures a human operator is alert and on the job and sooner or later take some action if the operator falls asleep or takes ill. ... Cruise control (sometimes known as speed control or Autocruise) is a system to automatically control the speed of an automobile. ... Steering is the term applied to the collection of components, linkages, etc. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Cruise control. ... Being awake is a metabolic state which is marked by catabolic processes and which is characterized by consciousness, the opposite of sleep, an anabolic process. ... The key aim of the intelligent car flagship initiative is to accelerate the take-up and use of advanced ICT-based in-vehicle and co-operative systems that make road transport safer and cleaner, by raising user awareness of such systems and their benefits, and by facilitating their deployment. ... A precrash system is an automobile safety system designed to reduce the damage caused by a collision. ... An anti-lock braking system (ABS) is a system on motor vehicles which prevents the wheels from locking while braking. ... EBA can mean one of the following: Eba, a food made from Cassava As an acronym, EBA stands for Endemic Bird Area Enlarged Board of Appeal, see Appeal procedure before the European Patent Office Enterprise Bargaining Agreement Everything But Arms Trade Agreement Engineering & Business Alliance This is a disambiguation page... Electronic Brake Force Distribution or EBD is an automobile brake technology that automatically varies the amount of force applied to each of a vehicles brakes. ... Brake Assist (BA or BAS) is a generic term for an automobile braking technology that increases braking pressure in an emergency situation. ... CBC may refer to: // Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC Television CBC Radio Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (TV 8, 900AM, 98. ... DBC may refer to: Design by contract, a methodology for designing computer software Direct Bonded Copper, a power electronic substrate Dead Brain Cells, a Canadian thrash metal band Dead Brain Cells (album), the first, self-titled album by the band Dynamic Brake Control, when the driver seeks to stop in... An inboard braking system is an automobile technology where the brakes are not located in the wheels, as is common today, but instead near the differential. ... In automobiles, fade, or brake fade is the reduction in stopping power caused by a buildup of heat in the brake pads and rotors. ... A disk or disc is anything that resembles a flattened cylinder in shape. ... Drum carried by John Unger, Company B, 40th Regiment New York Veteran Volunteer Infantry Mozart Regiment, December 20, 1863 Several American Indian-style drums for sale at the National Museum of the American Indian. ... Unsprung weight is a term used to describe that part of a vehicles mass that is directly connected to the wheels, and not isolated through the suspension. ...

Passive safety

When an accident is imminent, various passive safety systems work together to minimize damage to the individuals involved. Much research has been done using crash test dummies to make modern cars safer than ever. Recently, attention has also been given to cars' design regarding the safety of pedestrians in car-pedestrian collisions. Controversial proposals in Europe would require cars sold there to have a minimum/maximum hood height. This has caused automakers to complain that the requirements will restrict their design choices, resulting in ugly cars. Others have pointed out that a notable percentage of pedestrians in these accidents are drunk. From 2006 the use of "bull bars" (known as "roo bars" in Australia), in fashion on 4x4s and SUVs, will be illegal. Image File history File links Airbag0305neondodge. ... Image File history File links Airbag0305neondodge. ... Crash test dummies have saved countless lives. ... Almost two-thirds of the 1. ... World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is one of the six inhabited continents of the Earth. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A bull bar (also roo bar in Australia) is a device fitted to the front of a vehicle to protect the vehicle (and its passengers) from damage in a collision with an animal. ... Four wheel drive or 4x4, is a type of four wheeled vehicle drivetrain configuration that enables all four wheels to receive power from the engine simultaneously in order to provide maximum traction. ... This article or section may be confusing or unclear for some readers, and should be edited to rectify this. ...

A three-point seat belt. ... An automobile airbag, like this one in a crashed SEAT Ibiza car, deflates after 0. ... The crumple zones of an automobile are a structural feature designed to compress during an accident to absorb energy from an impact. ... Crash incompatibility, crash compatibility, vehicle incompatibility, and vehicle compatibility are terms in the automobile crash testing industry. ... A specially constructed frame built around the cab of a vehicle to protect the driver from being injured in an accident, particularly in the event of a roll-over. ... Gasoline, also called petrol, is a petroleum-derived liquid mixture consisting primarily of hydrocarbons and enhanced with benzene or iso-octane to increase octane ratings, used as fuel in internal combustion engines. ... Almost two-thirds of the 1. ...

Contents