Automobile safety advice

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Posted Thursday, Jul 10, 2008 by janny

Vehicle Safety on the two main things:

keeping you and your passengers safe on the road, and keeping your car safe when you're not around.

Child safety seat usage:

Deciding on the perfect safety seat for your child can seem like a monumental task. The good news, experts say, is there is no perfect seat.

"If you find a seat you feel comfortable using — one you know you can use correctly every time and that fits your child — then that's the seat for you," said Kerry Chausmer, safety certification manager with Safe Kids, a global network of organizations dedicated to preventing accidental childhood injury.

When shopping for a child seat, expectant parents can choose between infant-only or convertible seats. Infant-only models are rear-facing seats that carry a 20-pound weight limit. These are usually composed of a base that stays in the car and a seat that clicks in and out of that base. Convertible versions work as both rear- and forward-facing seats and can accommodate children who weigh up to 40 pounds.

While both types of seats are safe for infants, babies weighing less than 20 pounds are likely more secure in infant-only seats simply because the seats are smaller. Most experts, however, say the only difference between the two is convenience.

"The reason people go with infant-only seats is they can be clicked in and out [of the base]," said Kathleen Monahan, a child passenger safety expert at Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital. "They're not more or less safe.

In addition, if you choose an infant-only device, then you'll need to buy another seat when your baby tips the scales past 20 pounds. However, convertible seats are usually good for kids who weigh as much as 40 pounds. Experts recommend keeping your little ones in the rear-facing position as long as they will tolerate it.

Experts agree that parents should shop prior to the baby's arrival. "Don't wait until the last minute," Chausmer said. "Select a seat and learn [how] to use it before the baby is born. Be comfortable adjusting the harness and putting the baby in the seat correctly. New parents have enough to worry about already without having to think about the seat."

The airbag technology:

Since the introduction of the automobile, 30 million people are estimated to have died in motor vehicle crashes. That's more than the number of soldiers who succumbed during World War I and World War II combined.

Globally, traffic fatalities are considered such an epidemic that the World Health Organization selected road safety as the focus of World Health Day 2004. WHO noted that between 20 and 50 million people are injured in crashes around the world each year. The financial impact reached an estimated $518 billion.

In 2005, 43,443 people died in automobile accidents in the United States. Motor vehicles are the third greatest killer in the country, trailing only cancer and heart disease.

These are all grim statistics; but there's good news, too. Automobile-caused fatalities are down — slightly. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, the number of vehicle fatalities was projected to decline from 43,443 in 2005 to 43,300 in 2006, and the number of deaths per 100 million miles traveled was also expected to decrease from 1.45 to 1.44.

Education, legislation and changing social mores have contributed to lowering the casualty rate. Nearly 82 percent of the population now uses safety belts. Drunken driving has been reduced. Speed limits have been lowered. And cars today are constructed with sturdier safety cages and more effective crumple zones.

"We've made enormous progress," says Rosemary Shahan, founder of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety. "The Centers for Disease Control has noted that advances in motor vehicle safety rank among this country's top 10 public health achievements of the century."

Seven years into a new century, high-tech solutions are carrying the flag for safety progress. These technologies can mostly be divided into two categories: Crash avoidance and crash protection, or active and passive safety. The primary technologies in both categories include:

Active head restraints, which move forward upon impact to catch the head and increase neck protection;

Adaptive cruise control, which uses radar or lidar (laser-based radar) to monitor and regulate the distance between vehicles;

Advanced airbags, which isolate and protect various body parts and, in some systems, deploy at different depths or velocities depending on the occupant's size and position;

Advanced seat belt pretensioners, which tense up when a collision is imminent and are sometimes paired with seats that automatically adjust for increased crash protection (conventional pretensioners activate during a collision);

Electronic stability control, which monitors traction loss and steering angle and automatically applies one or more of the brakes to keep the vehicle on course;