cidents they have been able to come up with new safetyfeatures to help keep a person safe in the event of a collision. As we have already seen the seatbelt allows aperson to be connected to the vehicle so they can decelerate at the same speed as the car and are the singlemost effective safety feature in reducing fatalities. Seatbelts allow the passenger to take advantage of thecars energy absorbing design. The shoulder strap of a seatbelt stretches to allow more time for a person toslow down but they also place a tremendous force on the chest. While the seatbelt helps in most casessometimes it isnt good enough and the driver is injured by the steering wheel. After careful researchengineers came up with airbags that in combination with a seatbelt can increase a passengers safety in afrontal collision. However airbags do not deploy in low impact collisions and roll rollovers because theywould be of no help and may make matters worse. Sensors on the car detect a high rate of decelerationinside the passenger compartment and cause the airbag to deploy and within fractions of a second of beinginflated it deflates. While inflated it prevents the head and chest of front seat occupants from striking thesteering column, dashboard, and windshield. So airbags greatly reduce a person who is wearing a seatbeltand is involved in a head on collision from fatal injury.Another safety feature that is less obvious to many car buyers is crumple zones. In specific areas ofan automobile engineers integrate variable grades of steel and fiberglass in the front and rear end of the carthat allow the frame to buckle under stress and keep the passenger compartment intact. This redirects theenergy in the collision and reduces injury. Without a crumple zone the vehicle rebounds in an elastic mannerregaining nearly all it kinetic energy. The occupants of the vehicle in turn experience a force of equal andopposite direction which is very large. With a c...
