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Nicholas Haehn

Professor Rachel Porter

ENG 1201-511: English Composition II

11 April 2019

Advancements in Car Safety with Technology

Close your eyes and imagine it is sometime in the 1960s. You are in the passenger seat of

a Chevy with some of your high school friends. All of you are dressed up and on your way to a

Halloween party. Your friend is driving 35 miles per hour and accidentally drives off the road

and into a ditch. The car violently crashes and the bodies of everyone in the car go flying.

Suddenly, it’s all over. You are on the ground, dead from the impact. This is what happened to

Helen, a teenage girl, as described in Car Safety Wars: One Hundred Years of Technology,

Politics, and Death by Michael R. Lemov, contributor to the Motor Vehicle Safety Act

Amendments of 1964 and a lawyer who dealt with car safety. She was with her friends on one

Halloween night in the 1960s when they crashed. Three of Helen’s friends survived the crash

unharmed, while Bill, the driver of the car, suffered severe cuts. Helen, though, died after a

backseat passenger slammed into her chair, which then smashed her into the dashboard. Her

chest was crushed and her liver was shredded, killing her instantly. The car they were riding in

had practically no safety features, such as a collapsible steering column, seat belts, airbags, anti-

lock braking or any other braking system, safety glass, padded dashboard, or locking seats to

stop them from collapsing in a crash (Lemov 2-3). If the technology that is common in today’s

cars had been in place in this crash, Helen could have lived. Over 3.5 million lives have been lost

in crashes since cars were first invented in the early 1900s, but new technologies, once fully

implemented, have helped to reduce the number of people killed in car accidents (Lemov xii).
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Technologies intended for safety in vehicles have and will continue to save lives and reduce

injuries, shown by the success, which includes how the systems operate and how many lives

each system has saved thus far, of older systems and modern systems and the possible success of

future systems. However, drivers need to understand how the systems work, because drivers may

become riskier and the systems can become ineffective if they are misused.

The revolution for car safety was partially begun by Ralph Nader, who highlighted safety

issues in his book Unsafe at Any Speed. Nader spoke out about the safety issues with the 1960 to

1963 design of the Chevrolet Corvair, therefore diminishing the overall perception of safety in

cars made by General Motors, otherwise known as GM (Lemov 53). While he did not instantly

grab the public’s attention, he was eventually able to attract a following of consumers from

around the country. Through the efforts of Nader and those he inspired, laws were passed to

increase the safety of all vehicles, helping to save millions of lives (Lemov 170). This legislation

required the first safety systems in cars, including seat belts and airbags, starting the chain of

safety developments that have happened since. Seat belts and air bags are what would be

considered older systems, since they were among the first safety systems to be introduced.

Modern technologies that have developed to increase car safety include automatic emergency

braking, forward collision warning, lane assist systems, and blind spot detection, which are all

advanced driver assistance systems, or ADAS. The future of technology holds the possibility of

taking humans out of the equation through automated driving technologies.

One of the first systems that were implemented after the legislation inspired by Nader

was the seat belt, which works to restrain passengers and keep them safe in the car. Seat belts are

very simple restraints that are now required in all cars. The National Highway Traffic Safety

Administration (NHTSA), a branch of the United States Department of Transportation, states

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that seat belts “help keep occupants inside of the vehicles and also prevent them from acting as

projectiles inside of the vehicle and hurting others” (National Highway Traffic Safety

Administration, “Occupant Protection” 6). Without seat belts, people run the risk of being

violently thrown from their cars and possibly killed. Seat belts reduce this risk by holding the

passengers against the seat in the case of a crash.

Fig. 1. This is a crash test where only the driver is wearing a seatbelt. The driver is held into the

seat, while the other crash test dummies are thrown from the car, which would most likely kill a

person in a crash such as this one (Transport Research Laboratory).

Seat belts, although simplistic and older than many other systems, are very effective

safety systems in cars today. The NHTSA estimates that seat belts “reduce the risk of fatal injury

to front-seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent, moderate-to-critical injury to front-seat

passenger car occupants by 50 percent, fatal injury to front-seat light-truck occupants by 60

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percent, and moderate-to-critical injury to front-seat light-truck occupants by 65 percent.” This

translates to a total of 743,396 lives that could have been saved if everyone wore seat belts from

1975 to 2015 (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Occupant Protection” 6).

Without the use of seatbelts, all of the 743,396 people would have most likely lost their lives in

crashes. No other safety system has come close to saving as many lives as seat belts in their

lifetime. By the passengers simply latching the seat belt before driving, car safety is significantly

improved.

Airbags, another older safety system, have helped to increase safety in cars when

combined with seat belts. Lemov states that airbags are a type of “passive” restraint, meaning

that they work without the passengers in the car having to take any action to use them (Lemov

111). They work in higher speed crashes and are meant to work alongside seat belts (National

Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Occupant Protection” 8). Since seat belts are a passive

restraint, there is no need to rely on the passengers of cars to take the effort to increase their own

safety. This makes the system more effective since there is no need for user input. Moreover, by

working in high speed crashes only, injuries from unnecessary deployments are prevented.

Additionally, airbags have saved a number of lives. In crashes without seat belts, fourteen

percent of deaths are prevented with airbags, and in crashes with seat belts, eleven percent of

deaths are prevented with airbags. This totals to 2,657 lives that were saved by airbags in 2016,

and 47,648 lives that were saved since 1987 (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,

“Occupant Protection” 8). If older systems like seat belts and airbags can save this many lives,

modern technology advancements for safety have the potential to save thousands more.

Automatic emergency braking, or AEB, save lives in modern cars through preventing

crashes rather than reducing their impact. The NHTSA describes AEB and other safety systems
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in the article “Driver Assistance Technologies.” These systems either assist the driver in braking

the car or brake for the driver when a crash into another car or a pedestrian is likely to occur

(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Driver Assistance”). By taking control of

braking or assisting in braking, these systems can stop crashes that a driver may not be able to

respond to when in a state of panic. The NHTSA believes that AEB systems could stop injuries

from rear-end crashes, which are 33.4 percent of police-reported crashes, and crashes into

pedestrians while crossing the street (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Driver

Assistance”). Although rear-end crashes may seem minor, preventing these types of crashes

could lower the number of injuries in crashes tremendously. Additionally, crashes involving

pedestrians may not be seemingly dangerous for car passengers, they can be fatal to the

pedestrian that is struck, demonstrating the level of importance in preventing these and other

types of collisions. Although AEB systems are effective on their own, forward collision warning

can utilize AEB to further increase car safety and save lives.
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Fig. 2. An illustration depicting the zones in which forward collision warning systems work:

collision warning, collision warning with brake support, and collision mitigation (“Forward

Collision Warning”).

Forward collision warning (FCW), another modern safety system, can prevent numerous

crashes, especially when combined with AEB. The NHTSA describes FCW systems as warning

the driver when a car is approaching another car too quickly by using sensors to detect the speed

and position of the cars (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Driver Assistance”).

Aaron Benson, a researcher at the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, states that AEB receives

the warning from the FCW system and, if the driver does not respond, brakes to avoid the crash

(Benson 1). When these systems are combined, the driver still has the majority of the control of

the car, but the car itself can respond in dire situations. This allows drivers to be more aware of

the driving environment around them. Additionally, it provides a fail-safe if the driver cannot

respond in time to an impending crash. With full implementation on all cars, the number of

crashes this type of system can prevent is tremendous. Benson further states that FCW systems

could have prevented “69-81% of all rear-end crashes, 76-81% of angle crashes, and 23-24% of

single-vehicle crashes, which totaled approximately 2.3 million crashes and 7,166 fatal crashes

per year between 2002 and 2006” (Benson 1-2). This system represents the possibilities with

new technologies. Although seat belts, a more low tech and older solution, have prevented a

considerable number of deaths and injuries, FCW with AEB systems have the possibility to save

a similar or larger number of lives if they are implemented on all cars. With such a large

possibility for reducing deaths and injuries, it can be seen that safety is overall increased by

implementing FCW with AEB. These systems can be combined to stop a front or rear-end crash

into another car but do not address the issues of merging into other cars.
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Lane assists systems, being comprised of lane departure warning (LDW) and lane

keeping support (LKS), may seem to be more for driver convenience, but they can help to keep

drivers in their lane. Using sensors, LDW detects that the car is drifting into other lanes and

alerts the driver to make a correction. If the driver does not respond, LKS takes control of the car

to bring it back into the correct lane of traffic (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,

“Driver Assistance”). These two lane assist systems can be particularly important for drivers on

long car drives when drivers get tired. A drowsy driver may drift from their lane, endangering

other drivers on the road. Lane assist systems work to keep these drivers attentive and make the

roads safer. Benson states that lane assist systems could stop “13-16% of single-vehicle crashes,

66-88% of head-on crashes, 55-67% of sideswipe crashes involving vehicles traveling in the

same direction and 57-74% of vehicles traveling in opposite directions, totaling 483,000 crashes

and 10,345 fatal crashes annually between 2002 and 2006” (Benson 2). Although these systems

may seem like they are more for driver comfort than safety, they have the potential to prevent

more fatal crashes than even FCW with AEB, which are very promising systems already. Safety

systems like lane assist systems are necessary advancements in car technology due to the great

number of lives they can save.

Blind spot detection (BSD) is another fairly new technological advancement that may

seem like an optional luxury, but it increases overall traffic safety in cars with the systems

installed. Like lane assist systems, BSD helps the driver safely navigate the roads. BSD assists

drivers in making lane changes or general driving by using sensors and cameras to detect other

cars in adjacent lanes either all the time or only when the turn signal is on, depending on what

type of system is in a car (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “Driver

Assistance”). Blind spots can be a major problem in cars, especially larger vehicles such as
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SUVs and trucks. By reducing the likelihood of crashes due to lane changes, many highway and

other crashes could be avoided, therefore saving multiple lives and preventing numerous injuries.

To be exact, between 2004 and 2008, Benson states that BSD “could prevent approximately 24%

of all lane-changing crashes … which amounted to 395,000 total crashes including 393 fatal

crashes” (Benson 3). By having the possibility to save such a large number of lives, BSD has

proved to be a vital safety measure rather than only a luxurious option. BSD can allow drivers to

be more aware of the situation surrounding them and assist in normal driving. Similarly to many

new technologies, BSD works to prevent crashes before they happen, increasing safety in

automobiles.

Some people may argue that systems such as BSD and lane assist systems are meant for

driver convenience, but these people may be uninformed or using the systems incorrectly, as

these systems are meant for passenger safety. This misconception may be the cause behind why

many drivers rely heavily on safety systems in their car. Anna Vadeby, who is a member of the

Swedish government-run Swedish Road and Transport Research Institute, wrote the article “Car

Drivers’ Perceptions of Electronic Stability Control (ESC) Systems,” in which she describes

electronic stability control (ESC) and how drivers adapt their driving habits once they have the

system in their cars. Vadeby writes that drivers take more risks in cars with ESC because they

“start to trust the system and as a result become overconfident” (Vadeby 707). People can

misunderstand how a technology works and place too much trust in the system to drive the car.

This trust may cause people to assume that the system was developed for the purpose they are

using it for, controlling the car, when it was originally intended to increase safety. Also, many

people who think that technology in cars is for convenience may be thinking of technologies

such as adaptive cruise control and parking assistance systems, which are meant more for
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convenience than preventing crashes (Benson 1). These systems are likely to be better known by

drivers because drivers tend to interact more directly with these systems than safety systems.

Therefore, people are less likely to think about the other technologies in their car that can greatly

increase safety, such as airbags, which are currently required in all cars in the United States,

because they are hidden in the car and only work in an emergency. Additionally, while

convenience technologies in cars may not increase safety, they should not decrease safety, as

long as drivers know how to utilize the systems properly and their limitations. Although

convenience systems may be more obvious and prevalent to the driver, safety systems work in

the background to create an overall increase in safety in modern cars.

Today, many cars have separate safety systems and convenience systems, but the

technology of the future has the possibility to do both with the same system. Damien Subit, the

holder of a Ph.D. and author of multiple articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, writes in

“Will Automated Driving Technologies Make Today’s Effective Restraint Systems Obsolete”

that automated driving technologies, or ADTs, either help to drive the car or take complete

control of the car and can have “better decision-making than that of humans and … make the

road[s] safer.” While high level automation is not likely to come for many years, these systems

have the expectations of reducing crashes and injuries due to human error, which currently cause

94 percent of crashes, and providing better traffic by driving in a more orderly manner and

allowing people to move about while the car is moving (Subit 1590). Automation in cars could

be the key to improving safety standards by large margins. Further research will be needed to

produce these technologies, but, once fully developed and implemented, they could be advanced

enough to where human error is almost completely eliminated, reducing the need for many of

today’s safety systems and the number of crashes and deaths in accidents. Additionally, because
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ADTs can increase passenger convenience through comfortable rides and more, there is a higher

likelihood that car buyers will adopt the system. With the system in use by more car buyers for

convenience, these drivers also have the benefit of increasing their safety. In the future,

technologies could advance to where ADTs are effective at reducing human error and increasing

convenience, which will assist in improving safety. Automated systems are still years away,

though, so drivers need to know how modern systems work.

Technology such as airbags and seat belts are already required in many cars, and most

people know how to use them. However, many new technologies are only in a select number of

cars as an optional or standard safety system, and many drivers do not know if their car has the

system or how it works. Tamra Johnson, a AAA public relations manager, writes in the article

“Drivers Rely Too Heavily on New Vehicle Safety Technologies In Spite of Limitations,” that

80 percent of people did not understand how BSD worked or had false beliefs about the system,

and 40 percent of people were unaware of the limitations of FCW or mistook some of the

features of AEB as features of FCW (Johnson). The ability to understand how safety

technologies work is crucial to using them effectively, but this data shows that many people do

not know about the safety systems in their car. Misunderstanding these systems could lead to

additional danger than there was initially. Johnson further states that 84 percent of people trust

BSD, 77 percent trust LDW, 73 percent trust LKS, 69 percent trust FCW, and 66 percent trust

AEB (Johnson). Although many drivers misunderstand newer car safety systems, this data shows

that many people trust these systems with their life. A proportion of those responding most likely

knew how the safety systems in their car worked, but it is also likely that a larger proportion did

not know how these safety systems work. Safety is regarded by most people as an important

factor when buying a car, but these systems can only be used effectively when the driver and
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passengers fully understand how the systems work and how to fully utilize them. It is dangerous

for people to put too much trust in a system that they do not understand or do not know how to

use.

Misunderstanding safety technologies can lead to other issues. Many drivers become

riskier when driving with advanced safety systems in their cars. Vadeby states that 98 percent of

new cars in Sweden have ESC, but when drivers have or think they have ESC in their car, their

risk proneness increase (Vadeby 706). By misunderstanding and misusing newer safety systems

in cars, people put their lives in equal or greater danger than if they did not have the system.

Safety systems are, of course, meant to increase safety in cars. These systems are crucial in

modern cars, but, without proper understanding, they become useless.

Rather than not implementing systems because of concerns that technologies can make

drivers less cautious, new technologies should be implemented with more care. In order to

prevent people from having false beliefs about the abilities of each system, drivers should be

taught how to use the system by the dealer where they bought their car. Johnson states that only

about half of people who bought their car from a dealership were offered training on the

advanced safety systems in their cars and how they worked. Furthermore, those who were

offered training took the opportunity 90 percent of the time (Johnson). By offering training to

drivers with new cars, dealerships can play a major role in increasing driver awareness. The high

proportion of car buyers who accept this training shows that drivers tend to think it is important

to learn about their car’s safety systems. When drivers understand how the systems in their car

work, they can learn to use them or how to allow them to operate properly. This type of

education can also help drivers to understand the limitations to the safety systems in their cars.

Benson writes that FCW with AEB is meant to reduce the number and severity of rear-end
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crashes, and it has been shown to prevent 69-81 percent of these types of crashes (Benson). This

leaves at least 19 percent of crashes that are not protected by the system. Other safety systems

have similar success rates. No technology, at least in the near future, will be able to completely

prevent 100 percent of crashes, and many of these systems can only prevent specific types of

crashes. Therefore, education in these systems is necessary so that drivers do not over-rely on

technology to prevent an accident and potentially save their lives.

Imagine again that you are in a car, but now it is Halloween in 2019. Your car has

seatbelts and airbags, which are required by law, but you also have FCW, AEB, lane assist

systems, and BSD. You know how these systems work and how to use them properly. You are

driving to a party with your friends on a 65 mph highway and the car starts to drift off the road,

but the lane assist system in your car takes over and helps you safely back into your lane. Even if

this system did not work, you know that your seat belts and airbags would have lessened the

severity of the crash. You also know that the other systems in your car could save you in other

crash situations and are hopeful for the possibilities of automated driving technologies of the

future. Although you encountered a similar set of circumstances to the crash that killed Helen in

the 1960s, you survive along with all of your friends because the safety systems in your car

prevented the crash. Seat belts and airbags have saved countless lives since they were required,

and modern-day systems have the possibility to save thousands of additional lives if they are

implemented on all cars. Car technologies of the future may have the ability to completely

eliminate human error in driving, drastically reducing the danger of cars. Furthermore, if people

take the initiative to learn more about how the modern safety technologies in their car function,

they will likely have a greater understanding about how they work, what their limitations are,

and how to use them properly. Technology has shown the ability to tremendously increase car
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safety, but now it is in the hands of consumers to buy, utilize, and learn about the systems to

make them the most effective.

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Works Cited

Benson, Aaron, et al. "Potential Reduction in Crashes, Injuries and Deaths from Large-Scale

Deployment of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems." AAA Foundation for Traffic

Safety, AAA, Sept. 2018, aaafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/18-

0567_AAAFTS-ADAS-Potential-Benefits-Brief_v2.pdf. Accessed 1 Apr. 2019.

“Forward Collision Warning.” My Car Does What, National Safety Council, 2019,

mycardoeswhat.org/deeper-learning/forward-collision-warning/. Accessed 1 Apr. 2019.

Johnson, Tamra. "Drivers Rely Too Heavily on New Vehicle Safety Technologies in Spite of

Limitations." AAA Newsroom, AAA, 26 Sept. 2018, newsroom.aaa.com/2018/09/drivers-

rely-heavily-new-vehicle-safety-technologies/. Accessed 1 Apr. 2019.

Lemov, Michael R. Car Safety Wars: One Hundred Years of Technology, Politics, and Death.

Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2015.

“Forward Collision Warning.” My Car Does What, National Safety Council, 2019,

mycardoeswhat.org/deeper-learning/forward-collision-warning/. Accessed 1 Apr. 2019.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "Driver Assistance Technologies." National

Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, 2016,

www.nhtsa.gov/equipment/driver-assistance-technologies. Accessed 1 Apr. 2019.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "Occupant Protection in Passenger Vehicles."

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, Feb.

2018, crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812494. Accessed 1 Apr.

2019.

Subit, Damien, et al. "Will Automated Driving Technologies Make Today's Effective Restraint

Systems Obsolete." American Journal of Public Health, vol. 107, no. 10, Oct. 2017, pp.
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1590-92. EBSCOhost,

sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&d

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Transport Research Laboratory. “Crash Testing.” 2019. Science Photo Library, 2019,

www.sciencephoto.com/media/353752/view. Accessed 24 Mar. 2019.

Vadeby, Anna, et al. “Car Drivers’ Perceptions of Electronic Stability Control (ESC) Systems.”

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sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&d

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