| WHAT
YOU NEED TO KNOW A Personal Letter from Drs. Brenda and Erik Slovin...
When shopping
for a vehicle, one of most important things you should do first is separate
all the hype and slick marketing from the actual facts. Get The Scoop On Crash Test Ratings Before you run out and buy your dream machine, you have a responsibility to yourself as well as your family to find out just how well those cool wheels will protect you in a crash. There are several resources you can tap into to find out how specific vehicles scored in crash test ratings. For example, each year the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration crashes vehicles head-on into a wall and then bashes them broadside to test their ability to protect occupants. These NHTSA tests focus on evaluating vehicle restraint systems such as air bags and safety belts. Another entity, the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety, conducts a different battery of vehicle safety tests using offset-frontal car crashes to assess the protection provided by a vehicle's structure. A Car’s Braking Safety Features Can Stop A Wreck Before It Happens All vehicles offer some kind of standard safety features, but the ones involving your braking system just might be some of the most important. So be sure your quest to choose a safe vehicle includes taking a hard look at braking safety features. Anti-lock brakes, or ABS, work with in tandem with your vehicle’s regular braking system. Put simply, ABS keeps your brakes from locking up. In a vehicle not equipped with ABS, the driver has to manually pump the brakes to prevent a dangerous wheel lock-up. But in vehicles equipped with ABS, the driver's foot can remain firmly on the brake pedal, and the ABS system automatically pumps the brakes. Tests have shown that vehicles equipped with ABS effectively reduce stopping times on slippery surfaces and allow drivers to maintain steering control during emergency braking.1 Another car safety feature to look for is called Electronic Stability Control. This feature is actually an extension of anti-lock brake technology, and it’s designed to help you keep from losing control of your car at high speeds. As a matter of fact, ESC reduces the risk of single-vehicle accidents by 41%, and even more impressive is the fact that ESC reduces the occurrence of fatal single-vehicle accidents by a startling 56%.2 For A Safe Vehicle, You Need A Crashworthy Design Until a few years ago, most car safety features included basic safety belts. But with advancing technology, vehicle restraint systems have become much more sophisticated. Now, more than 52% of vehicles on U.S. roads have driver-side airbags and about 39% have passenger-side airbags. But perhaps
the most impressive, and effective, airbag restraint system developed
to date is the side-impact airbag. These researchers concluded that as side-impact airbags increasingly become a standard safety feature, the incidence of head and chest injuries due to side-impact collisions will likely be reduced significantly reduced.3 Choosing A Safe Vehicle Really Can Be A Matter Of Life Or Death As you can see, choosing a safe vehicle involves much more than just watching a catchy television commercial or listening to a smooth-talking salesman. It involves research on your part. After all, your life and the lives of those you love just may depend on it. References: .............................................................. |