Five car safety features that can save your life

1. Seatbelts

Seatbelts were invented by Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin. In the event of a crash, seat belts are designed to hold the occupant in place. They also reduce the risk of the person meeting with a crash from colliding with the steering wheel, dashboard, or windshield. Wearing a seatbelt is not only mandatory for the driver, but also for the person sitting at the back. Reports suggest, that Gopinath Mundey who died in a road accident last year was seated at the back without wearing a seat belt which caused him serious injuries including cervical fractures. Around 45 per cent accidents in the world could have been avoided by the mere use of seatbelts, suggests reports.

2. Air Bags

These are quite literally, bags of air that inflate in milli-seconds in case of an accident. When your car collides with an object, the air bags become active and inflate. This provides cushioning to your body to prevent injuries. Though, the front airbags are standard, some manufacturers give additional airbags on the side for extra safety.

3. Electronic Stability Control

Electronic stability control is designed to assist drivers in maintaining control of their vehicles during extreme steering maneuvers. Electronic stability control senses when a vehicle is starting to over or understeer and it automatically applies the brake to a single wheel. It is intended to reduce the occurrence of crashes. ESP is an option available mostly on high-end cars in our market, but it would be good to see it filter down into more mainstream models in the future. 

4. Anti-lock Braking System (ABS)

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Barring budget hatchbacks, most cars in India offer at least one variant which has this feature. This mechanism prevents the car’s wheels from ‘locking up’ during emergency braking. ABS helps the driver to change the car’s direction and steer away from harm even under hard braking. A car without this system could get its wheels locked up, which leaves the car open to uncontrolled skidding and the driver with no way out of the tricky situation. This feature is beneficial during wet driving conditions.

5. Adjustable head restraints

Headrest is actually a safety feature designed to protect the occupant from injuries during a rear impact collision. This helps in reducing the chance of neck and shoulder injuries. The restraints should be locked in place according to the height of the seated occupant. In case if it is not locked properly, the protection that the headrest offers against collision gets compromised.