What are the most important aspects of Car Safety?

Car safety is an important subject for many people so lets look at some of the best features currently available on cars today.

If you're planning to buy an older car, there's some specific issues your going to need to consider, depending on its age.

Let’s face it, not everyone's got the money to buy a brand new car so the older second hand good condition cars are what to go for. You can get some great deals if you look right (and don't forget to bargain)!!

We're looking at the best and most important safety features available on modern cars and explaining how they benefit us. Some of these are also going to be available on the older models but not all.

Some of these features toughen up the car and protect the occupants. Others are designed to help collision avoidance and give the car extra tools to help the driver if their heading for collision. The best things to look for are:-

1) ABS - Anti Lock Braking System

2) Stability Control

3) Air Bags

4) Strong Body Shell

5) Seat belt Pre-Tensioners, Load-Limiters & Intelligent Seat Belt Reminders

6) Good Headrests and Active Head Restraints

7) Child seats - Isofix and other

8) Tire Safety and Pressure Warning Gauge

There are quite a few additional car safety systems becoming available now, which are all of great benefit to car safety generally. Most of these will not be found on older vehicles.

For example the Lane Departure Warning system which monitors if you veer from the lane you're following.

Others to watch out for are:-

Adaptive cruise control - with sensors and use of radar it will adjust throttle and brakes to keep a safe distance from the vehicle in front of you.

Blind-spot detection - generally, if you indicate to pull out to another lane and a vehicle is present, this system will warn you e.g. by way of a flashing light in the mirror.

Rollover prevention - this basically applies brakes or maintains throttle control to stop the car from rolling if the driver loses control in a corner or similar circumstance. This is more involved than ESC.

Emergency brake assist/collision mitigation - additional to ABS this will sense and apply appropriate pressure to braking if required in an emergency collision situation.

Rearview camera - essentially this provides more view of what's happening behind you. It helps when parking.

Emergency response - Basically to make your car as safe as possible in an emergency. For example, it will automatically unlock all the doors in the event of a crash, or shut off the fuel to minimize the risk of an explosion, or switch on the hazard lights.

Night vision assistance - This is where the car either has adaptive headlights which allow you to see further down the road at night time, or now some manufacturers have night vision systems which use an infrared camera on the car to show heat sources in front of the car. BMW for one have this technology on some of their latest models.

These are all car safety elements that are becoming available as car technology advances.