Safety is now a priority with most new-car buyers, but it still doesn't command everyone's full attention. Neither the auto industry nor the federal government can drag its feet anymore when it becomes apparent that consumers face unnecessary risks in their vehicles.

Thanks to sophisticated engineering and extensive safety testing (combined with better roads, increased seatbelt and infant car-seat use, reduced speed limits, and stricter drunk-driving laws), the number of auto-related fatalities has dropped dramatically in recent decades. Even so, the numbers remain frightfully high.

An estimated 42,800 Americans perished in highway vehicle accidents during 2004, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which was a slight decline over 2002. This translates to 1.48 fatalities per 100 million miles traveled in cars or light-duty trucks - a historic low rate. By comparison, 3.3 people died for every 100 million miles traveled in 1977.

Still, motor-vehicle crashes continue to be the major cause of unintentional injuries for Americans of all ages, and are the leading cause of death for those age 4 to 33.

Active and Passive Safety Measures
All vehicles have become better engineered to protect occupants in a crash, and help motorists avoid them in the first place. Engineers call these innovations passive and active safety features, respectively.

More than 100 separate components in a typical vehicle contribute to its overall safety, and most new-car buyers seem willing to spend extra money to help protect their loved ones. In a 2004 survey of nearly 15,000 consumers by Harris Interactive, 60 percent said they would like to have rollover protection on their next vehicle. Respondents also favored stability control and pre-crash sensing systems.

Fortunately, even the least-expensive vehicles now offer safety features like antilock brakes and side-impact airbags, which were only available on luxury cars a decade ago. Sadly, though, there are some automakers removing certain safety items, such as ABS, from the standard-equipment lists of some of their less-expensive vehicles.

Today's cars and trucks are designed and built to help passengers survive a wide range of types and severities of collisions. "Crumple zones" at the front and rear of a vehicle are engineered to absorb and redirect crash forces. Hoods are engineered to collapse so occupants won't be forced through the windshield. Doors are designed to remain intact and overlap upon impact so passengers will be able to exit the vehicle. Doors also have more secure hinges and latches so they won't spring open to eject passengers. Heavier firewalls and specially designed engine mounts help send components down and under the passenger area, so they won't come crashing into the front seat. Windshields are specially laminated to help prevent not only injuries from shattering glass, but ejection from the vehicle in a collision.

Stronger passenger compartments, reinforced by race-carlike "safety cage" structures, offer cocoonlike protection to help keep the occupant area intact in an accident. Padded, energy-absorbing materials and other interior elements further help reduce injuries. Head restraints, now being added to rear as well as front seats, help prevent whiplash. Some automakers, led by Volvo, Saab, and General Motors, have introduced head restraints that move slightly under certain crash conditions to help further reduce neck injuries.

Still, the laws of physics dictate that a larger and heavier car will provide its passengers with better protection in a crash. But it's not always practical or desirable to simply select the largest car or truck on a dealer's lot.

Seat Belts are Your Primary Protection
New technology has improved occupant safety dramatically. Yet, properly used seatbelts are still the first, and best, line of protection.

Occupant restraints-primarily seatbelts and supplementary airbags-are designed to protect against the effects of an accident's so-called "second collision." The "first collision" occurs when a vehicle crashes into an object. The second one happens about one-fiftieth of a second later, when unrestrained occupants, still moving forward at the vehicle's original speed, smash into the steering wheel, dashboard and/or windshield. Experts say buckling the three-point lap-and-shoulder harness is the most effective safeguard against the effects of the second collision. They are also the best protection against ejection from a vehicle. Three-fourths of those ejected from vehicles in a collision die from their injuries.

All states but one (New Hampshire), and the District of Columbia, mandate seatbelt use. NHTSA reports that seatbelt use is at an all-time high, with 80 percent of motorists buckling up, compared to only 58 percent in 1994-the first year in which the agency began keeping statistics. Seatbelts are credited with preventing some 12,000 motor-vehicle deaths per year. NHTSA estimates that the increase in belt usage between 2001 and 2004, from 73 to 80 percent, saved 3,400 lives.

Every occupant needs to be buckled, not just those in the front seats. Unrestrained rear-seat passengers are tossed around like rag dolls during a collision or rollover, exposing themselves and front-seat occupants to injury.

Lap and shoulder belts must be worn somewhat snugly to be most effective. Not only will they offer greater protection in a collision, but they can help keep you squarely in the seat during hard-cornering maneuvers. Many vehicles include "pretensioners" that automatically pull the belts tight in a collision.

Belts can bother shorter people and children when they rest on the side of the neck or across the face, but that's no excuse for not wearing them. To help ease this problem, NHTSA requires all vehicles to include upper anchor positions for front-seat shoulder belts that are height-adjustable, allowing a more comfortable "fit." Some vehicles also provide height adjustments for outboard rear shoulder belts. Others include "comfort guides" that route a belt to a more comfortable position.

Airbags Become Safer and Smarter
Once little more than quick-inflating pillows of gas, today's "smart airbags" react to passenger weight and impact conditions to deploy accordingly.

Frontal airbags for the driver and passenger have been required by law in all new cars and light trucks since 1999. If sensors detect rapid deceleration, as in a frontal crash, a fabric cushion, installed in either the steering-wheel hub or the passenger's side of the dashboard inflates in about one-twentieth of a second. The cushion helps absorb the crash energy and prevent the occupant from hitting the dashboard and/or windshield. After deployment, airbags deflate quickly to allow the driver to regain control of the car if it's still moving.

Airbags have been credited with saving an estimated 10,789 lives through the first quarter of 2003, according to NHTSA. Some luxury cars now have as many as 10 airbags spread around the front, rear, and side of their interiors. Though they add to a car's overall crashworthiness, both manufacturers and safety advocates are quick to point out that airbags are designed to augment, not replace, seatbelt use. According to the National Safety Council, the combination of seatbelts and airbags is 81 percent effective in preventing serious head injuries compared with a 60 percent effective rate for belts alone.

Because of incidents in which early airbags caused fatal injuries in crashes, especially to shorter occupants, unbelted riders, and children, current frontal airbags deploy with considerably less force. Still, as NHTSA-mandated warning stickers in all new vehicles point out, front-passenger airbags can cause fatal injuries in a crash to infants riding in rear-facing child seats.

While the obvious solution is to secure the child in the back seat, what if you don't have one? To that end, most pickup trucks and two-seat sport coupes now include an ignition key-activated shutoff switch for the passenger-side airbag.

So-called "smart" frontal airbags on many vehicles can deploy at different degrees of force, depending on the severity of the crash and the weight of the occupant. Most vehicles now have suppression systems that prevent airbags from deploying if sensors detect a child in the front passenger seat. Such airbags will soon be required in all vehicles, on a phased-in basis that began in 2004.

Some cars and trucks offer adjustable accelerator and brake pedals that can be moved closer or farther away from the driver. Adjustable pedals are particularly useful for shorter people, who otherwise must sit close enough to the airbag for it to cause injuries in a collision.

Side-Impact and Side-Curtain Airbags
Most crashes don't occur head-on into another vehicle or a fixed object. Side-impact crashes account for almost 30 percent of collisions, and are the second-leading cause of death and injury to vehicle occupants. As a result, the government mandates that all new cars come equipped with some form of side-impact protection. This is generally accomplished by adding a metal beam and extra foam padding inside the door.

Going a step further, an increasing number of models now offer side-impact airbags for front passengers. These are either mounted on the doors or located within the front-passenger seats. A few costly luxury cars include them for rear-seat passengers as well. NHTSA warns that children who ride in a seat protected by a side-impact airbag may be at risk of serious or fatal injuries if the child's head, neck, or chest is in close proximity to the deploying airbag.

Many vehicles now include head-protection airbags, either in addition to or instead of door- or seat-mounted side airbags. Configured in either a curtain or tubular design, they generally extend from near the bottom of a car's windshield pillar, all the way to the roof just above the rear door on each side of the vehicle. Several Ford vehicles offer an optional airbag canopy system that not only protects passengers in side impacts, but rollover incidents as well.

ABS and other Active Safety Features
To help prevent drivers from having to rely wholly on seatbelts and airbags to save their lives, a wide range of crash avoidance equipment is found on the typical passenger vehicle. This can range from features like daytime running lamps and automatic-dimming rearview mirrors that help improve visibility, to improved braking and suspension components designed to let the driver safely steer clear of trouble.

Originally developed in Germany in 1936 for aircraft use, but made widely available on passenger cars since the late 1980s, antilock braking systems (ABS) prevent a vehicle's wheels from locking up under hard braking, especially on slick road surfaces.

ABS works by engaging and disengaging the brakes rapidly whenever sophisticated computer-controlled sensors detect wheel slippage. This is similar to the time-honored technique of pumping the brake pedal to avoid skidding, but the system can perform this task far faster and more precisely than is humanly possible. Keep your foot down on the brake pedal and don't let up until the vehicle is stopped. If you pump or let up on the brakes, you'll essentially defeat the system's effectiveness.

Available on nearly all cars and trucks sold in the U.S., ABS is well worth the extra expense when offered as optional equipment. In addition to helping a car stop in a straight line, ABS helps the driver keep control of the vehicle when steering around road hazards in extreme situations while applying the brakes.

Traction Control: This uses a car's ABS sensors to detect wheel slippage during acceleration and help the driver maintain control. It's standard or optional on a growing number of vehicles, and often bundled with ABS. Traction control is especially worthwhile on rear-wheel-drive cars and trucks, which tend to lose traction more easily on slippery surfaces.

Some traction-control systems work by automatically applying the antilock brakes to a slipping wheel (or wheels) to improve low-speed traction on a slippery surface. Others use a combination of selective braking and engine intervention to maintain traction and stability.

Stability Control: Certain vehicles from almost every manufacturer may be equipped with electronic stability control (ESC), which is also known by various names depending on the automaker. In 2003, more than 7 percent of vehicles had some form of ESC. A NHTSA study, released in 2004, compared vehicles with ESC to earlier models when it was unavailable. The addition of stability control reduced single-vehicle crashes, including rollovers, by 35 percent. The reduction was nearly twice as great for SUVs.

ESC controls both lateral and longitudinal stability, which can prevent a car from "fishtailing" and correct extreme under- or oversteer in cornering situations. Sensors keep track of vehicle speed, steering angle, brake pressure, lateral acceleration (how "hard" the vehicle is cornering), and yaw (the vehicle's rotation around its vertical axis). The system essentially recognizes whether or not the vehicle is operating according to the driver's intent, and takes action to avoid loss of control.

Brake Assist: Many antilock braking systems now include emergency brake assist. Sensors detect a panic-braking situation. Since most drivers do not apply the brake hard enough under such conditions, the system automatically applies more pressure to reduce stopping distance.

Keeping Children Safe
Safe conditions for adults can be dangerous ones for kids. Children under age 13 belong in the back seat and need to be securely buckled. Most kids under the age of nine should ride in a child safety seat or booster seat.

As stated, passenger-side airbags are hazardous to children 12 and younger who are riding in the front seat-even if they are belted. These children are too small and fragile to be so close to a deploying airbag, which inflates at up to 200 miles per hour.

The risks are greatest for infants. Safety officials warn that a rear-facing child seat should never be used in the front seat of a vehicle with a passenger-side airbag unless the bag can be disabled.

Of the 231 deaths attributed to airbags as of mid-2003, 144 were children. Putting children under 13 in the rear seat reduces the risk of injury in the most common type of accident-a frontal collision-because they will be further from the impact.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia require infants and toddlers to be in a child safety seat. However, many laws apply to children up to three or four years of age, and the cutoff ages vary widely. A few state laws apply specifically to children weighing 40 pounds or less.

Bigger children can ride in back without a special seat if the shoulder belt fits. If the belt rubs their neck or face, try a booster seat. Child seats can reduce the death risk by 70 percent if correctly installed, yet NHTSA says as many as four out of five are improperly used.

A LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children) universal child-seat attachment system, required by NHTSA in most new vehicles, makes it easier to install the seats properly. Previously, child-seat manufacturers devised their own mounting systems, some of which proved problematic for users. Forward-facing child seats must come with a tether strap that secures the back of the seat to the vehicle for better head protection.

The first step is to secure the seat so that it won't move excessively in a collision. Then, properly secure the child with the belts attached to the seat. Consult the instructions from both the child-seat maker and the vehicle manufacturer to make sure you're installing the seat correctly. The owner's manual for new vehicles usually has ample information.

Built-in child safety seats are a factory option on some vehicles, mainly minivans. This handy feature is integrated into the seatback and folds out when needed. Some automakers offer approved child seats as accessories.

Crash Tests
All vehicles sold in the U.S. are required to pass a basic crash test, but it's conducted by the car companies on their own vehicles, not by the federal government. Separately, as part of the New Car Assessment Program, the government does conduct a 35-mph crash test, but only on several dozen vehicles per year.

Here's how the programs operate:

30-mph Basic Crash: Until recently, every car and light truck had to pass a 30-mph test, using both belted and unbelted dummies of adult males. In the belted test, a vehicle crashes head-on into a fixed barrier and sensors transmit signals to electronic monitoring devices.

Automakers have been permitted to simulate this crash with a "sled test." Dummies are placed in a mock vehicle mounted on a sled, which travels a short distance on rails and comes to a sudden stop. This rapid deceleration simulates the forces generated in a 30-mph crash, but is not as severe. The sled test enables manufacturers to use less-powerful airbags while still meeting federal safety requirements.

New 25-mph Basic Crash: New rules have been phased in, starting with the 2004 model year and finishing in 2005, to eliminate both the 30-mph crash test using unbelted dummies and the "sled test." They are being replaced by a 25-mph unbelted test, which automakers claimed they could meet using depowered airbags that will still provide ample protection. The government also has added an offset frontal crash test into a movable barrier.
NHTSA 35-mph Crash: This test is head-on into a concrete barrier, conducted on selected production vehicles by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Scores for other vehicles, tested in previous model years and not significantly changed in design, are presumed to remain valid. Belted dummies are monitored for forces against their head, chest, and upper legs.

Each tested vehicle gets a rating of one to five stars, with the highest number of stars indicating the best protection against head and chest injury in a head-on collision. Results are released to the public periodically as a "consumer information program" and are popularly known as "government crash tests."

NHTSA does not advise consumers to use its 35-mph crash results to choose one car over another or to judge if a vehicle is safe or unsafe. The tests are intended only to compare vehicles of similar size and weight, within about 500 pounds.

The 35-mph test has been criticized for not reflecting real-world collisions because:

Test results often do not correlate with death and injury rates compiled by the insurance industry and even NHTSA itself.
Actual crashes are rarely head-on into flat barriers that involve the full width of the car. More often, frontal collisions occur at an angle. NHTSA's new rule includes offset testing.
Dummies have represented an average-size male. A larger or smaller person might produce different results. NHTSA has addressed this concern with a new family of dummies that includes women and children.

The federal government also conducts side-impact tests at 34 mph. All cars must pass this test, either with or without side airbags.

Real-World Statistics
Crash statistics can help a buyer make an informed decision, but you need to read "between the lines" to get a valid appraisal. Smaller cars and trucks may score well in government crash tests, for instance, but real-world fatality rates show that large, heavy vehicles offer better occupant protection than smaller, lighter ones.

A research and lobbying group supported by the insurance industry, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), has found that death rates generally decline as the size and weight of vehicles increases. Size, however, isn't everything. The Highway Loss Data Institute, a branch of IIHS, ranks cars by the number of injury claims filed. Some small cars have fewer injury claims than some midsize cars, though in general large vehicles have fewer injury claims than small ones.

Who's Behind the Wheel?
Death rates and injury claims are influenced not only by the size and type of vehicle, but by who drives them and how they are driven.

Large, expensive cars are most often driven by older, more-experienced drivers. Minivans are usually driven by adults with children. Both groups have fewer accidents than the population as a whole.
Small cars and small SUVs, on the other hand, are used primarily by younger, less-experienced drivers, who tend to have more accidents involving death or injury. In a 2004 study, the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute found that in single-vehicle crashes, SUVs driven by a person under 25 rolled over 37 percent of the time. For all SUV drivers, however, 30 percent resulted in a rollover.

To further complicate the situation, crash-test results don't always correlate with insurance-company ratings, which are based on their own statistical claims histories for fatalities and injuries for each make and model. State Farm Insurance Co.'s rating system determines which vehicles are assessed higher or lower premiums for medical payments/injury protection coverage. Some vehicles have received 5-star ratings in NHTSA's frontal crash tests, but were given the lowest safety discounts by State Farm. Conversely, a few vehicles are granted high safety discounts, but only garnered three or four stars in the agency's crash-test ratings.

Information on vehicle death rates, insurance claims for injuries and collisions, and other safety-related data is available from the IIHS Information Hotline 1-703-247-1500.

Consumers can also write to:
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
1005 N. Glebe Road
Arlington, VA 22201
Web site: http://www.hwysafety.org

Light Trucks and Safety
As trucks become more popular, they account for a larger portion of motor-vehicle deaths. Trucks grew from 34 percent of sales in 1989 to 55.5 percent in 2004. Fatalities in passenger cars dropped from more than 25,000 in 1989 to 19,460 in 2003. But the number of deaths in light trucks (including sport-utilities, pickups and vans) climbed from about 8500 annually to 12,444. Nevertheless, NHTSA and the insurance industry say death rates are higher in small SUVs than all other vehicle classes.

Since the 1999 model year, federal regulations have required light trucks to meet the same major safety requirements as cars, including dual front airbags and identical side-impact standards. The only vehicles exempt are heavy-duty SUVs, pickups, and vans with gross-vehicle weights of more than 8500 pounds.

One growing concern over the size disparity between large SUVs and smaller cars has prompted automakers to redesign the bumpers on the latest SUVs. They're now mounted closer to the pavement or a secondary lower bumper is added to prevent the larger vehicle from climbing up onto a smaller one in a collision.

Rollovers Command Attention
By far the deadliest risk facing truck occupants is an accident in which the vehicle rolls over. According to NHTSA, more than 280,000 rollover accidents are reported each year, which claim more than 10,000 lives annually. Utility vehicles rolled over in 35.7 percent of fatal crashes during 2003, while only 15.8 percent of passenger cars that resulted in fatalities experience a rollover. When used to transport a heavy load or carry a full complement of passengers, SUVs are even more top-heavy, experts say, and thus are more likely to roll over.

Rollovers are directly related to a vehicle's stability in turns. That stability is influenced by the relationship between the center of gravity and the track width (distance between the left and right wheels). A high center of gravity and narrow track can make a vehicle unstable in fast turns or sharp changes of direction-increasing the odds that it will tip over once it begins to skid sideways. The problem is most pronounced in 4-wheel-drive pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles, which have higher ground clearance for off-road driving.

Most fatal 4WD rollovers are single-vehicle accidents that occur on weekend nights. The drivers are most frequently males under 25, and alcohol is usually involved. In three out of four fatal rollovers, the victims were ejected from the vehicle, indicating they weren't wearing a seatbelt.

Neither cars nor trucks are subject to a federal rollover standard, though pressure for such a requirement has been building. To help predict which vehicles might have a greater likelihood to overturn in single-vehicle accidents, NHTSA introduced a rollover rating system in 2001. Reported on a five-star system, the rollover ratings are based on an engineering analysis of each vehicle's center of gravity and the width between the front tires. The results are compared with police accident reports for confirmation. In its rating system, five stars equals a rollover risk of less than 10 percent, while one star indicates a greater than 40-percent rollover risk.

Safety Recalls
Before purchasing any vehicle, it pays to check NHTSA's web site to find out if that model has been recalled; and if so, why. Not all recalls are equally serious, but a pattern or series of recalls suggests that it might be wise to shop for a different vehicle.

Auto Safety Hotline
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) operate a toll-free Auto Safety Hotline for information on government crash tests, safety recalls, and other safety-related questions. Consumers can also call this number to report safety problems with their vehicles and to request literature on child safety, seat belts and airbags, antilock brakes, and other topics. An answering system is available during nonbusiness hours.

NHTSA/DOT Auto Safety Hotline
1-888-327-4236

NHTSA maintains an inspection locator as part of its Web site to help parents find safety-seat inspection locations. The locator includes a list of organizations that offer seat inspections, searchable by zip code or state. DaimlerChrysler sponsors a toll-free hotline (1-866-SEATCHECK) that taps into NHTSA's online service.

Consumers can also write to:
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
400 7th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20590

Web site: www.nhtsa.dot.gov