How do the following things make cars safer?

Question

How do seat belts make cars safer?
How do air bags make cars safer?
How do crumple zones make cars safer?

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Seat belts secure the occupant to the seat (work best in front end collisions) and distribute the collision deceleration forces over the areas of the body covered by the belts. They can cause bruising and soft tissue injuries.

Air bags prevent parts of the occupants body from striking hard surfaces inside the car in a collision. The air bag distributes deceleration forces over large areas of the body, minimizing soft tissue damage as well. Curtain air bags significantly reduce head injuries in side impacts.

Crumple zones allow the car's structure to deform in a planned way upon a collision. The crumple zones are designed to absorb impact energy and reduce the sudden deceleration of a collison, while directing collision forces away from the passenger compartment of the vehicle.
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Wikipedia your questions separately for more detailed answers.

Source(s):

Driving safety professional.

Answer 2

`Seat belts keep you from kissing the windshield, or from flying out of it.
Airbags keep you from annihilating your face on the steering wheel / window/side area.
Crumple zones absorb and direct the energy of impact in a SAFE direction, instead of crushing the passengers.

Answer 3

A) I want to stop when the car does.
B) If I must stop too quickly I would like it to be soft.
C) They absorb a great amount of the impact so you don't have to.
Last year over 1200 people died in accidents here in Florida because they were not wearing a seat belt.How selfish were they? Just think of their parents/friends/co-workers and other family that grieved because they were too stupid to buckle up !

Answer 4

crumple zones make the car safer by lessening the impact. same with the airbags. seat belts protect you from the insides of the car. the safest feature of the car is the driver. even if you're the safest driver, it's no guarantee though.

Answer 5

None of these things prevent cars from crashing. They do make it somewhat less likely that occupants will die if they do crash.

Answer 6

They do not make cars safer.

http://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/do… Table 903
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/t…

Year Motor-Vehicle Accidents Traffic Deaths (Calculated: deaths/100,000 accidents)

1950 8,300,000 34,763 (419)
1955 9,900,000 38,426 (388)
1960 10,400,000 38,137 (367)
1965 13,200,000 49,163 (372)
1970 16,000,000 54,800 (343)
1980 17,900,000 51,100 (285)
1990 11,500,000 44,600 (388)
2000 13,400,000 41,900 (313)
2005 10,700,000 43,500 (407)

The "Safe" cars were the massive cars of the 1970's.

Answer 7

Some people would argue that seat belts, air bags & crumple zones do not always make a car safer, but personally I think the seat belt holds you from smashing you head through the windscreen. The airbag prevents you smashing your face into the steering wheel/dashboard. Finally crumple zones allow a vehicle to come to a stop a little less violently by absorbing some impact & preserve a safety zone/cell in which driver/passengers sit.

Source(s):

Survivor of a few crashes