Car Safety Essay -- essays papers

Car Safety Automobile Safety It’s a dark rainy night. You and your family are coming home from a late night family party. As a car is coming through an intersection another car cut in front of it. The driver decides to hit the brakes so you can avoid the car, but as he presses the brakes, the car loses control on the slick wet road. He is not able to gain control and at that point he has endangered the lives of himself and many others on the road. This is just one example of the many types of things that occur in our streets everyday. All that would have been needed to avoid this situation would have been a traction control system in his car, which would have detected that the car was skidding and would have applied the brakes to the necessary wheels, therefore correcting the skid. Automotive companies must mandate the installation and improvement of specific safety devices to make our vehicles safer. The opposing forces are against my argument mainly because of one reason, money. These are mainly uninformed people who are more concerned with monetary issues rather than the safety and well being of every of everyone on our streets. They see things differently, for example, instead of mandating some things such as a traction control system in a car, which costs no more than $200-600 (Krebs 30), could in the long run lower their insurance costs, and prevent them from a potentially harmful accident. They would much rather have $200-600 worth of accessories. It goes to show you that these people chose style and comfort over their lives and the live of others. Most of the automotive accident statistics are quite overwhelming, and they show for themselves why today’s cars must be made safer. 6,289,000 reported crashes, 3,200,000 people injured, and 41,345 deaths (car accident statistics). These are some of the statistics as of 1999 and they are expected to rise, due to the large number of automobile we are buying. By mandating the installation of certain safety devices in cars we can reduce these numbers drastically. Most car accidents occur at intersection, when someone makes a left turn in front of an oncoming car. The result of this is that the car turning gets broadsided on the right door of his car, also the weakest point of his car. So if most accidents are side impact collision why haven’t car manufacturers mandated the installation of s... ...†. Available http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/brain_injury_ lawyers.html. Bush, James W. Motor Vehicle Facts an Figures: Wards Communication, 1999. 10, 11, 84-89. â€Å"Car Accident Statistics†. Available http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/ stats.html. â€Å"Convictions Quashed in Fatal Road-Sign Crash†. Chachere Vickie. The Miami Herald. 26 March.2001. Available http://www.miami.com/herald/content/news/local/ dade/digdocs/091369 .htm. Krebs, Michelle. â€Å"How to Buy a Safe Car†. Auto World Weekly. 10, April. 2001. 29-30. â€Å"Road Rage Endangers Innocent Drivers Too†. The Sun Sentinel. 25, March. 2001. Available http://sunsentinel.com/features/sfi-25mabbymar25.story. â€Å"Seat Belts†. Available http://www.car_accidents.com/pages/seat_belts.html. Smith, Steven Cole. â€Å"Swerving Car Hits Bus then runs Into Two Fort Lauderdale Homes.† Tzortzis, Andreas. The Sun Sentinel. 25 March. 2001. Available http://www. sunsentinel.com/news/local /broward/search/sfl-cbus250mar 25.story. â€Å"Volvo SCC. Is this the Worlds Safest Car†. Auto World Weekly. 10, April. 2001. 31. â€Å"Whiplash Injuries†. Available http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/whiplash. html