Chapter 19

Staying Safe on the Road

In This Chapter

Understanding how air bags and side-impact systems protect you during accidents

Adjusting seats, head restraints, steering wheels, and pedals

Buying and installing the proper safety seats for children of every age

Seeing what’s behind you and into blind spots

Avoiding accidents with traction control, stability control, and rollover protection

Navigating, getting roadside help, and recovering stolen vehicles with telematic systems

With the growing emphasis on fuel economy, it’s easy to forget that the most important issue for everyone who owns, drives, or is a passenger in modern vehicles is safety. Getting there efficiently is not as important as getting there in one piece! As prospective buyers and state and federal government have made reducing road injuries and fatalities a major priority, automotive technology has responded with a variety of improvements and innovations. Many safety systems that were introduced as optional features on luxury vehicles a few years ago have become available either as an option or as standard equipment on an increasing number of models because research and testing by NHTSA and the IIHS has prompted government legislation to make an increasing number of them mandatory.

This chapter describes the most important safety features that are currently available or will be in the near future. I hope that it will inspire you to keep up-to-date on what’s out there and make these protective systems a priority when choosing your next vehicle.

Every one of the safety features in this chapter is important, so the order in which they appear shouldn’t affect the amount of attention you pay to each of them. Although buying a vehicle with highly rated protection systems may cost a bit more, ask yourself what the health — and lives — of you, your family, and friends is worth. If you’re driving an older vehicle that lacks many vital safety features, you should definitely consider replacing it with a newer, safer, model.

Besides the systems in this chapter, rain-sensing windshield wipers, self-defogging side mirrors, night-vision enhancement, headlamps that can swivel to illuminate corners, and other innovations are becoming popular. Keeping up-to-date on what’s available is easy. Several organizations and agencies have Web sites that rate vehicles and safety systems. At the NHTSA site, www.safercar.gov, you can type in a vehicle’s make, model, and year and see its rollover and crash-test ratings. The IIHS lists the Ten Safest Vehicles along with ratings for air bags on www.iihs.org and offers a free brochure called “Shopping for a Safer Car” that you can view and download from the Consumer Brochures link. In addition, publications such as Consumer Reports feature the results of their tests and ratings on a regular basis.

Whenever you encounter a term set in this font, you’ll find it defined in the glossary in Appendix A.

Air Bags

Air bags have been around for quite a while and are credited with saving tens of thousands of people from injury and death. Air bags also have been accused of causing injuries when they deploy with too much force. As a result, they’re constantly being upgraded to be more sensitive and versatile, and they’re designed for several locations to provide protection in a wider variety of accidents. This section tells you about the types of air bags found on many modern vehicles and what should be available over the next few years. It also tells you how to position yourself (and other passengers) to avoid being injured by them if they deploy.

Traveling safely with air bags

The most important way to protect yourself from being injured by an air bag is to maintain a space of at least ten inches from the area where it’s located. If you’re the driver, this does not mean that you have to scoot the entire seat back ten inches from the air bag if that makes it difficult to steer and reach the gearshift and pedals. Instead, recline the seat back and raise the seat until you’re a safe distance from the bag and still can see and drive comfortably.

Because the driver’s front air bag (often called the frontal air bag) is located in the center of the steering wheel, if your steering wheel can be adjusted, tilt it downward so that the air bag area is aimed at your chest rather than at your head and neck. Figure 19-1 shows ways for the driver to reach the proper distance from the front air bag.

Figure 19-1: How to achieve the correct position.

Adapted from the NHTSA (www.safercar.gov)

If you don’t wear a seat belt, or if you’re wearing it improperly, you not only risk hitting whatever’s in front of you if the car stops abruptly, but you also can end up on top of an inflating air bag and be injured by it.

If necessary, don’t be afraid to jam on the brakes. Air bags aren’t deployed unless you hit something that the ECU senses as a moderate or severe crash. Just tapping an adjacent vehicle or curb or nudging the stanchion in a parking lot shouldn’t trigger the air bags in your vehicle.

How air bags work

Basically, an air bag system is made up of one or more air bags, the crash sensors that detect that a crash has taken place (or in some cases, may be about to happen), and the mechanisms that inflate and deploy the bags. Air bags usually are inflated with a harmless gas (usually nitrogen or argon). To keep you from suffocating and give you room to move around, the gas escapes through vents in the fabric and the bag deflates in less than a second after deployment.

If you notice something that looks like smoke after an air bag deploys, it’s probably starch or talcum powder that’s sometimes used to lubricate the action of the air bag. The substance is usually harmless, but it may contain a little sodium hydroxide, which could irritate your eyes or throat for a little while but won’t cause injury.

Air bags are placed in several locations. The frontal air bag on the driver’s side is usually located in the center of the steering wheel, and the passenger-side air bag can be found on the dashboard. A variety of side-impact air bag s may be found on or over the doors, on the roof of the passenger compartment, or on the sides or backs of the front seats. There are even new seat belt systems that contain air bags to protect passengers from . . . air bags! I cover each type of air bag later in this chapter. Here’s what’s involved in order to deploy an air bag:

The crash sensors measure how fast the vehicle is decelerating or how badly it’s crushed, if hit on the side. Frontal-crash sensors may be located in the passenger compartment, near the engine, or inside the ECU. Side-impact sensors can be located in the door, the pillar between the doors, the doorsills, or the ECU.

The ECU uses information from the sensors to decide whether or not to deploy a particular air bag.

The air bag inflator receives a signal from the ECU if the vehicle has crashed severely enough to warrant air bag protection. This signal starts a chemical reaction that produces the gas that inflates the air bag (see Figure 19-2). In frontal collisions, all this happens in less than 1/20 of a second, and side air bags inflate even faster because there’s usually less space between the potential victim and the site of impact.

Figure 19-2: How air bags work.

ON-OFF switches that can disable air bags when they’re potentially more dangerous than protective may be found on some vehicles because the speed with which an air bag inflates can injure someone it’s meant to protect. Modern sports cars and trucks that lack rear seats usually come equipped with these switches.

To ensure that children are placed in the rear seats of vehicles that have them, those vehicles aren’t allowed to have an ON-OFF switch as standard equipment. If you want to have a switch installed in a vehicle with rear seating, you have to apply for it and explain why it’s necessary. Because the driver and passenger air bags operate independently, turning one off doesn’t affect the other. To decide whether your vehicle should have an ON-OFF switch, you can read a copy of NHTSA’s brochure, “Air Bags and On-Off Switches: Information for an Informed Decision” at www.safercar.gov/airbags/Brochure/index.html. If you decide to request a switch, you can download the proper Request for Air Bag On-Off Switch form.

Many newer cars also equip the front passenger seat with a pressure sensor that deactivates the passenger-side air bag when it determines that a small-statured person, such as an infant or toddler, is in the seat. A “Pass Air Bag Off” warning will light up somewhere on the dashboard. These systems aren’t perfect, though, and are no substitute for an ON-OFF switch.

Replacing air bags

When an air bag is deployed, it can’t be reused, and you shouldn’t drive your vehicle until it has been replaced. Be sure to go to an authorized repair center for this job; a “black market” exists for unused air bags recovered from vehicles that have been scrapped. Unless an air bag was designed especially for your vehicle’s make, model, and year, it won’t work properly — or possibly at all — when it’s needed the most. You can find out whether a particular vehicle’s air bags have been deactivated by going to www.safercar.gov/airbags/VINs/Find_VIN.html and typing in its VIN (vehicle identification number).

Having an air bag doesn’t mean that you can do without your seat belt. Each safety measure has a job to do to keep you from being injured in an accident.

The following sections describe each type of air bag you may find on a vehicle. Some are standard equipment required by law, whereas others are optional. If you’re shopping for a new set of wheels, air bag equipment should be a major factor.

Frontal air bags

Originally, the only air bags found on most vehicles were frontal air bags designed to protect drivers and passengers in front-end accidents. The driver’s air bag and the passenger’s air bag are in different locations and have different shapes (see Figure 19-3). Because sensors can tell whether someone is in the passenger seat, each is deployed independently of the other.

Figure 19-3: Different types of air bags.

Because the speed and force with which air bags deployed sometimes caused injuries, over the years, frontal air bags have constantly been improved to increase their efficiency. Two such types found on more recent vehicles are advanced frontal air bags and dual-stage air bags.

Advanced frontal air bags

All passenger cars, SUVs, and light trucks manufactured after September 1, 2006, are supposed to come equipped with advanced frontal air bags designed with sophisticated sensors that enable the ECU to regulate how powerfully the air bag will inflate depending on each occupant’s size, whether the seat belt is worn, the position of the seat, and the force of the crash. Some can even sense how much you weigh! Advanced frontal air bags can minimize the risk of air-bag injury for children and adults of small-stature or fragile health either by not allowing the air bag to deploy when it’s potentially more dangerous than the crash itself or by inflating the air bag with less force.

Because advanced frontal air bags can be turned off automatically if the sensors detect a child or very small person in a front seat, they must be equipped with an indicator light. Often in the center of the dashboard where everyone can see it, it says “DRIVER AIR BAG OFF” or “PASS. AIR BAG OFF.”

Having an advanced frontal air bag system does not mean that kids can travel safely in the front seat. They’re still much safer in the rear of the vehicle, as mandated by law. For information on what to do if you can’t avoid putting a child in a front seat, see the child safety seat section later in this chapter.

You can tell whether a vehicle has advanced frontal air bags by looking at the label on the reverse of each sun visor for the phrase, “EVEN WITH ADVANCED AIR BAGS.”

Dual-stage air bags

In order to protect riders from bags that inflate too forcefully, dual-stage air bags (sometimes called multi-stage air bags) have inflators that go off in one, two, or more stages depending on the severity of the crash. Variable output inflators do the same thing using a range of pressures rather than in stages. In the United States, dual-stage air bags are now required by law on both the driver and passenger sides of the vehicle.

Side air bags (SAB)

Because frontal air bags don’t protect individuals during side-impact crashes or rollovers, a variety of side air bags (SAB) have been designed to do the job (refer to Figure 19-3). They come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and locations. Designed to protect the head, chest, and body from hard objects and structures in the interior of the vehicle as well as from intrusions by exterior objects, SABs often stay inflated longer than frontal air bags in case of repeated impacts. Many SABs are designed to sense how severe a crash is and to “decide” whether or not to deploy and with how much force to use if they’re needed. According to the IIHS, automakers have agreed informally to have side air bags as standard equipment on cars, pickups, and SUVs by around 2010; they’re already included as standard or optional equipment on a growing number of vehicles.

If you’re shopping for a vehicle, the type and number of side air bags should be a serious factor in your choice. Not only do they keep you safer on the road, but the more prospective buyers demand them, the sooner they’ll become standard equipment.

The basic types of SABs are each designed to protect different areas from injury (refer to Figure 19-3):

Curtain and tubular air bags protect your head. Both types of air bags are usually located above the side windows of a vehicle and are designed to protect people seated in both the front and the rear. Besides protecting you from impacts, curtain air bags may keep you from being thrown out of the vehicle during a rollover. Tubular air bags stay inflated for about five seconds (rather than about 1/20 of a second) to protect your head from repeated impacts and during rollovers. Because of their smaller size, tubular air bags are designed to work in tandem with standard side air bags, not to replace them.

Seat-mounted air bags are located on the outer side of seats to protect the chest (or torso) when a vehicle is hit from the side.

Door-mounted air bags protect your torso from side impacts and in rollovers.

Combo air bags protect both the head and the chest. They’re especially protective in rollovers. Larger than the other types, combo air bags usually are installed on the side of the seats.

You can watch videos that show how each type of air bag is deployed at the NHTSA’s Safer Car Web site, www.safercar.gov/airbags/pages/ABTypesSABCurtain.htm, and you can find out whether a particular vehicle has side air bags at www.iihs.org.

Side Impact Protection Systems (SIPS)

For additional protection in the event that a vehicle is hit from the side, side impact protection systems (SIPS) are now mandatory on American cars, utility vehicles, passenger vans, and pickup trucks. SIPS feature a variety of structural design elements as well as the side air bags and curtains described in the previous section. SIPS can include crash-resistant door pillars with top portions that are more rigid than the lower portions in order to transfer the force of the impact away from the head as the lower part of the pillar moves inward. Other SIPS components can include safety cages incorporated into the body structure of the vehicle and crumple zones that absorb some of the impact by crumpling in a way that doesn’t endanger the occupants. Steel beams reinforce the doors and sides of the vehicle to prevent them from crushing those seated inside. Some vehicles have side-impact tubes that transfer the thrust of the crash to a steel box located in the center of the vehicle; the box collapses to absorb the impact. Others have increased padding in doors and other areas.

Adjustable Devices

Although the ability to adjust side- and rear-view mirrors and seat-back angles has been standard for many, many years, an increasing number of other devices now can be tailored to fit each driver, and sometimes passengers, as well. The more comfortable a driver is — and the better he or she can reach and operate the steering wheel, pedals, and gearshift — the more efficient and less distracted and fatigued that driver will be, especially on long or difficult trips.

Here are some of most important adjustable features currently available:

Adjustable seats: The ability to adjust a seat’s height, angle, and distance from the steering wheel is now standard equipment, and many models offer power seats that not only do this with little effort but also have a built-in memory that enables them to automatically adjust to the needs of each person who uses the vehicle on a regular basis.

Adjustable steering wheels: According to Road & Track, “researchers suggest that 40 percent of women driving larger vehicles do not sit at a safe distance from the steering wheel.” Now, steering wheels whose tilt can be adjusted and that can telescope toward or away from the driver are increasingly standard. Some steering wheels can even be swung to the side without affecting the settings to allow the driver to enter and exit the vehicle more easily.

Adjustable pedals: A switch or keypad that simultaneously adjusts the height of both the accelerator and the brake pedals, as well as their distance from the driver, is now available. If you’re below or above average height, this feature is worth serious consideration.

Adjustable head restraints: In 2007, according to the IIHS (the only agency that tests seats and head restraints dynamically to see how well they prevent whiplash injuries), about 200,000 whiplash injuries out of around 2 million claims filed annually caused serious long-term medical problems. They stress that the design of the seat and the head restraint must work together for effective protection.

The IIHS advises that “head restraints should be positioned high enough to protect the head so as to minimize neck distortion. Ideally the top of the head restraint should be positioned even with the top of the head and at least level with the top of the ears or about 3.5 inches below the top of the head. . . . The distance from the back of the head to the restraint should be as small as possible, preferably less than 3 inches. On seats without horizontally adjusting head restraints, this can be adjusted by adjusting the seatback recline angle.” Figure 19-1 shows you the ideal position for both the seat and the head restraint.

Vehicles should have head restraints that automatically adjust when the angle of the seat back is changed. But to avoid whiplash injuries, people who are not of average stature may need to adjust their head restraints manually to the safest position, and this definitely includes rear-seat passengers! In this case, the tallest people are at greatest risk, although short people are also affected.

Many vehicles don’t have adjustable rear seat head restraints, and some have no head restraint for the center rear seat. If you’re looking for a new vehicle, check to see whether passengers in the rear of the vehicle will be able to travel safely.

Child Safety Seats and Booster Seats

According to research by NHTSA, in the first 20 years, approximately 7,000 lives were saved by the proper use of child restraints. As safer seats are developed and facilities made available to insure safe installation, the yearly figures are improving.

NHTSA suggests replacing child safety seats after five years or after an accident, and sending the registration card to the manufacturer so that you’re notified in case of a recall.

Child safety seat requirements

Even with all the publicity, the sad fact is that many parents remain ignorant about the proper way to seat their children in a vehicle, and research has found that thousands of child safety seats are improperly installed. No single seat can carry a child safely from infancy through childhood and children need special seating much longer than many would assume. Figure 19-4 shows you the four steps and types of seats that are necessary to seat a child safely at different stages of growth.

Children should be placed far enough away from the side of the vehicle so that they can’t open the door or window.

Ideally, all young children should be placed in the center of the back seat. Obviously, it’s impossible to place more than one child in that position, but children are still better off in the rear than in the front passenger seat. With two kids, place the younger one in the center of the back seat and the other on the passenger side of the back seat so that you can see both of them clearly in the rear-view mirror. If you’re concerned about keeping an eye on children in the back seats, aftermarket wide rear-view mirrors are available to give you a good view. Instead of turning around while you’re at the wheel, learn to “talk to the mirror,” and if pandemonium ensues, pull over and park at the side of the road before dealing with it face-to-face.

Here are NHTSA’s recommendations for insuring that your children will have the best chance to travel safely on the road at each stage of their growth and development (refer to Figure 19-4):

Infants up to at least 1 year old and less than 20 pounds need special rear-facing safety seats. Place an infant in the back seat of the vehicle in a rear-facing child safety seat for as long as possible, up to the height or weight limit of the particular seat you use. Be sure that the seat can be adjusted so the infant’s head is supported and doesn’t bobble around.

Until children reach around age 4 and at least 40 pounds, they must ride in the back seat in forward-facing child safety seats.

Figure 19-4: Seating children safely.

Adapted from the NHTSA (www.safercar.gov)

There are convertible seats on the market that will take a child from toddler age until they need a booster seat, and some seats can be used as part of a stroller, on dining chairs, and in airplanes. Be sure to check that whatever type you’d like to buy is rated properly for the entire age range.

Children who weigh at least 40 pounds and are at least 4’9” tall (usually between the ages of 8 and 10) should ride in a booster seat. The booster seat is used to elevate the child high enough for the adult seat belt to fit properly, with the lap belt laying across the upper thighs and pelvis (rather than the stomach) and the upper strap going over the shoulder (not the neck) and down across the chest.

Some booster seats have backrests, some are backless, and others convert from one form to the other. If your child is old enough to sit up straight in the booster seat with his or her back against the back of the rear seat and the seat belt fits properly, unless your vehicle has low seat backs or no rear headrests, a backless booster is fine. Otherwise, a backrest is a good choice until the child’s head is higher than the backrest.

Don’t give in to pressure from your kids to get out of “babyish” booster seats prematurely. It’s better to have an angry child than an injured one. If your child will be riding in someone’s vehicle without your supervision, it pays to find out how and where he or she will be placed. If necessary, send the proper seat along.

Children are ready to get out of a booster seat and just use the vehicle’s seat belt when the following conditions are present: Both the lower and upper belts fit properly (see the preceding booster seats bullet) and their legs are able to bend at the knees against the edge of the seat when they sit up straight against the seat back without slouching. Figure 19-4 shows you what that placement should look like.

Children should only be placed in the front seat of a vehicle if the vehicle has no rear seat, if there are too many children for all to fit on the rear seat, or if a child is so sick that you have to be able to reach him or her immediately in an emergency.

If you must place a child in the front passenger seat on occasion, make sure that the seat is shoved back as far as possible, that the child is in a safety seat that keeps him or her in an upright position, and if the vehicle has an air-bag ON/OFF switch, the “How airbags work” section in this chapter tells you how to disable the passenger-side air bag. If you have to choose which child to put in front, pick the one who can best remain restrained in the proper position, even if it isn’t the oldest or largest child.

Choosing child safety seats

Here are some tips for selecting the best seat for your child and testing it out to be sure it’s the proper one:

Buy a new seat. Secondhand seats may be worn or defective.

A child safety seat must have a label that says it meets or exceeds Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

Read the current child seat ratings for safety, durability, and ease of use. Select from among top-rated seats listed at www.nhtsa.dot.gov/CPS/CSSRating/Index.cfm or in the most current listings in Consumer Reports. At www.aap.org/family/carseatguide.htm, the American Academy of Pediatrics also provides an extensive and detailed amount of information on this vital topic.

Take your child along when shopping for a seat so that you can see whether you can work the buckles easily while the kid is squirming around. Tension adjusters to lengthen or tighten the straps should be easy to use, and straps should go into the buckles and be released easily (but not so easy that “even a child can do it!”).

Make sure that your child is comfortable. If you have an infant, the seat should adjust to recline so that his or her head is supported.

There should be room in the seat for the child to grow into and to accommodate layers of heavier clothing. If you choose wisely, your kid is going to be in that seat for at least four years.

Considering types of harnesses and anchoring systems

Child safety seats come with a variety of harnesses to keep your child securely buckled in place. Some have a three-point harness with straps that come over the child’s shoulders and connect with a buckle close to the bottom of the seat. Five-point harnesses have five straps, one for each shoulder, one for each hip and one at the child’s crotch. Some seats feature a padded or triangle-shaped T-shield that’s attached to the shoulder straps and the front of the seat. Still others have a shield that drops down from overhead to keep the child in place.

The five-point harness is generally considered to be the safest and most comfortable for a child, so you may want to look at seats with a five-point harness first.

Any child seat or booster seat is only as effective as the way it’s anchored to the vehicle. There are two anchoring systems available to ensure that your child’s seat is safely anchored, and compatibility with these should definitely be a vital consideration when choosing a seat:

The LATCH system: LATCH is an acronym for “Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children.” Since September 1, 2002, every new vehicle and child safety seat has been required to have this system, which eliminates the need to use seat belts to secure the seat. As shown in Figure 19-5a, the system includes anchor hardware on the vehicle and hooks and straps on the seat that attach to them. You can find more information on LATCH and how to use it to install child seats at www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/generic.jsp?id=77978.

Unless both your vehicle and the child seat have the LATCH system, you will still need to use seat belts to install the seat! Before installing it, inspect the seat belts to be sure that they are not frayed, are securely anchored to the vehicle, and that the latches work properly. If you spot any problems, have new seat belts installed throughout the car. And be sure the seat can be securely anchored using seat belts alone.

ISOFIX connections: ISOFIX has been the worldwide standard in child-seat safety and convenience since 2004. It’s available as standard equipment or as an option. This rigid interface between the child seat and the body of the vehicle enables the seat to be installed easily and to stay safely in place. With ISOFIX installed, instead of fussing with seat belts or hooks and straps, you just click the seat into the anchor points in the car, as shown in Figure 19-5b.

Figure 19-5: The LATCH car seat system (a) and an ISOFIX car seat system (b).

Adapted from the NHTSA (www.safercar.gov)

Testing the candidates before you purchase

After you select the best candidates, take the seats out of the store to the parking lot and try them out in the rear seat of your vehicle to see whether they’re easy to handle and whether your child is comfortable in them. Because you aren’t going anywhere, there’s no need to install each one — just place it on the seat and set your child in it.

If a store won’t let you try seats out in your vehicle, offer to buy the one that looks the most likely to work for you and tell the clerk that you’re going to try it out in the parking lot and may be returning immediately to exchange it for another — and another — until you find the one that satisfies your needs. At that point, the department head or store manager will probably give you permission to test the seats out without going through all that rigmarole.

Check to see whether your child will be able see out of the window. Obviously this isn’t a requirement for tiny infants, but a seat that sits high enough to afford visibility will cut down on the complaining as time goes on and the baby grows up.

Have the seat installed professionally at the store (if you feel that they’re capable of doing that properly) or at your dealership, or locate a child-seat fitting station and have it installed there. To find local, professional assistance with correctly installing a child safety seat, go to www.nhtsa.gov and click on Locate a Child Seat Fitting Station in the left-hand column. The site also contains valuable information on child seats and a place to file complaints.

Smart Seat Belts

Although seat belts have been mandatory on passenger vehicles for years, the technology to create “smart” seat belts that are safer, more efficient, and significantly adaptable to each individual is just hitting its stride.

Currently available are seat belts with pretensioners that detect a crash and increase the tension of the seat belt to literally haul you into a safer position on the seat. Although how these smart seat belts do this varies from one model to the other, most use the same sensors that activate the air bags in response to a crash. And there are seat belts on the road today that have built-in load limiters that lengthen the belt a bit if it constricts too forcefully during a high-speed crash.

BFGoodrich has a smart belt that inflates a little air bag that runs the entire length of the seat belt. It deploys along with the other air bags to protect you from them by pushing away from you rather than toward you. These are expected to become standard on personal vehicles, school buses, trains, and airplanes, too. The newest smart seat belts can anticipate a possible accident and react before it happens! Most of them are connected to sophisticated air-bag sensors and to the anti-lock braking system (ABS) described in Chapter 14. Currently in the works is an ultrasound finger scanner on the dashboard that can “read” the bone density of the individual and use it to determine how much tension that person’s bones can handle! This could be especially important for seniors and children.

No matter how smart seat belts become, unless drivers and passengers are smart as well, the belts can’t be truly safe and effective unless you wear them! They also need to be properly adjusted. A well-fitting seat belt should allow you to move around enough to look out the side window and run your vehicle efficiently. If the seat belts in your vehicle seem to have been designed for basketball players or dwarves, consult your dealership or a reliable auto parts store for gadgets that keep them from cutting into your neck or strangling you. Be sure your passengers in the rear seat are belted in, too. The Center for Transportation Injury Research at the University of Buffalo, New York, found that unbelted passengers sitting behind the driver tripled the odds that the driver would be killed in an accident because, if the unbelted passengers hurtle forward, they quadruple the maximum force to the driver’s head and chest.

Pregnant women should always wear seat belts that are positioned correctly in order to avoid injuring themselves and their unborn children. The lap belt should be as low as possible around the hips rather than across the stomach, and the shoulder belt should rest across the breastbone rather than the stomach. NHTSA advises against deactivating air bags; its tests have shown that there’s risk for greater injury without an air bag because it helps spread the force of the crash, which would be concentrated by the seat belt, over a larger area.

One last reminder for expectant parents: Don’t forget to bring an infant safety seat along with you to the hospital so your newborn can ride home safely.

“Eyes” in the Back of Your Vehicle

When parking a vehicle or backing out of any parking space or driveway, most of us wish we had eyes in the back of our heads. What scares us when it’s difficult to see what’s behind us is not simply the possible damage to our vehicles — or to someone else’s if we collide with them; the really tragic risks involve hitting a human being or an animal. Unfortunately, small children and pets are all but invisible in rear-view mirrors, and thousands have been killed or injured by vehicles that backed over them. Back-up warning devices, also called rear sensing systems, and parking sensing devices are being developed in a variety of configurations and are increasingly found as standard or optional equipment on passenger vehicles.

Back-up beepers and sensors

For many years, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has required construction equipment and other industrial vehicles to be equipped with back-up beepers that sound a warning to everyone within earshot when the vehicle is in Reverse, and this has probably saved many lives. Some passenger vehicles, particularly SUVs, are equipped with audible back-up alerts. Because kids and animals probably don’t know enough to respond to audible alerts, the sensors and back-up cameras and monitors described in the following sections are probably a better solution.

Sensors that can be mounted at the rear of a vehicle are available on the aftermarket, as optional equipment on some vehicles, and as standard equipment on many luxury models (especially SUVs). Sensors use sonar to detect objects behind the vehicle and beepers or warning lights to alert drivers when they detect something dangerously close behind them.

Back-up cameras and monitors

Back-up cameras that offer a view of what’s behind the vehicle are now becoming popular options on newer models and are expected to become standard equipment on many models before too long. A variety of back-up cameras are already available on the automotive aftermarket, all of which require a monitor to view what they record. Cameras mount on the rear panel, on or under the rear bumper, or inside the vehicle, and monitors may be incorporated into rear-view mirrors, can be placed on the windscreen or the dashboard, or can hook into a navigation system. This safety device is definitely a worthwhile investment!

Blind-spot information systems (BLIS)

The area where drivers can’t see vehicles in adjoining lanes behind or to the side when using their side and rear-view mirrors is called the blind spot. Collisions and near-misses when changing lanes because the blind spot rendered a vehicle invisible are a daily occurrence on most highways and busy streets. As a result, Volvo has led the way in developing a blind-spot information system (BLIS) that employs a little camera mounted on each side mirror (see Figure 19-6) to alert drivers who are planning to change lanes to vehicles in those lanes that they may otherwise not be able to see. It also tells drivers when there is sufficient space to change lanes safely.

When a vehicle appears in a blind spot, the camera on that side activates a light on the door panel near that mirror. When there’s enough room to change lanes safely, the light goes off. Drivers testing this system report that the light isn’t distracting when they aren’t looking to change lanes and that checking to see whether the light is on before changing lanes quickly becomes as natural as checking the mirrors.

Figure 19-6: A blind-spot information system.

It’s a well-known fact that most side mirrors distort how close the vehicles coming up in adjacent lanes are, and I carefully adjust my side mirrors and rear-view mirror so that the moment a vehicle coming up behind me in the next lane disappears from view in the rear-view mirror its front-end becomes visible in the mirror on that side. I believe that modifications to side mirrors should be a priority for automakers. Until we all have BLIS-equipped vehicles, I urge you to never make a lane change unless you turn and take a swift peek out the side window to see whether there’s someone dangerously close to you.

Drivers are warned about extensive blind spots on large trucks that make smaller vehicles all but invisible to truck drivers. Hopefully, BLIS will help to rectify that situation, especially if the federal government sees fit to mandate it for use on commercial vehicles. Until then, watch for BLIS systems to appear on a growing number of passenger vehicles. I hope every driver can be in a state of BLIS before long!

A system is becoming increasingly popular on up-scale pickups, SUVs, and large sedans that automatically tilts your side-view mirrors downward when you back up to park so that you can see the curb or whatever else is alongside the car. After the car is parked, the system automatically returns the mirrors to their original positions.

Brake-Shift Interlocks

A brake-shift interlock is a device that prevents the gearshift from being accidentally shifted out of the Park position, which could allow the vehicle to accidentally roll into danger. The device makes it impossible to move the gearshift without simultaneously stepping on the brake pedal. Although many vehicles already come with this as standard equipment, in 2006, in response to a growing number of accidents involving children injured while playing with gearshifts, NHTSA and 19 automakers agreed to have brake-shift interlocks on all new vehicles by 2010.

Traction Control Systems (TCS)

Traction control systems (TCS) have been around, in one form or another, for years (see Figure 19-7). The system senses when one or more wheels is spinning faster than the others and attempts to prevent the vehicle from going out of control. The problem can be due to a slippery surface but also can occur when a vehicle with front-wheel drive is driven so hard that the drive wheels don’t steer properly and lose traction.

Electronic traction control systems use the anti-lock braking system (ABS) to sense and compare the speed of each wheel and automatically pump the brake on a wheel that’s spinning faster than the others. (You can read about ABS in Chapter 14.) Some TCS also decrease the power supplied by the engine to the wheel or wheels that are slipping. On systems like these, the accelerator pedal pulsates, much as the brake pedal does when ABS is employed. Other forms of traction control that involve throttles and turbocharging exist, and more are being developed.

Figure 19-7: A traction control system.

Traction control is no substitute for snow tires or chains in icy or snowy weather because it doesn’t increase traction — it just tries to keep wheels that lose traction from spinning out of control.

Electronic Stability Control (ESC)

Making emergency maneuvers to avoid obstacles, taking turns at high speeds, and cornering too sharply or too fast are some of the situations that can cause your vehicle to veer from the path you expect to follow when you turn the steering wheel. As a result, your vehicle either oversteers (turns more radically because it’s sliding or spinning) or understeers (turns less than you planned because it loses traction). Electronic stability control (ESC) keeps your vehicle on the straight and narrow to prevent it from skidding sideways, spinning out, or rolling over.

As you can see in Figure 19-8, ESC uses the wheel-speed sensors that enable ABS and TCS. It also has a sensor that monitors the steering angle (the position of the steering wheel) and compares it with the data from a rotation sensor that monitors the yaw angle (how much the vehicle is rocking from side to side) to see where the vehicle is actually going. Other sensors can measure additional types of movement. With all this input, the vehicle’s ECU can monitor how well your vehicle is responding to the position of the steering wheel and, by activating the brakes on the proper wheels and modulating power, correct the course of your vehicle so that you can go on your way safely. Figure 19-9 shows how ESC works to correct understeering and oversteering.

Figure 19-8: Electronic stability control uses several sensors.

Figure 19-9: How ESC corrects understeering (a) and oversteering (b).

Adapted from the NHTSA (www.nhtsa.gov)

To find out whether a particular vehicle is equipped with ESC, just enter the make, model, and year at www.iihs.org/ratings/esc/esc.aspx. Because many automakers have trademarked their own names for their ESC systems, you can find a list of them at money.cnn.com/200 6/06/12/Autos/esc_names/index.htm.

Don’t think that having an ESC-equipped vehicle means it will take care of you if you drive carelessly. ESC doesn’t prevent accidents in normal stop-and-go driving or at low speeds; it’s designed to go into action to help keep you from losing control at high speeds or on slippery roads. And “help” is the key word: ESC can’t prevent loss of control in every situation, especially if you’re driving too fast! The terrible toll caused by vehicles going out of control has made ESC a feature that drivers shouldn’t do without (see the nearby sidebar).

Research makes a strong case for requiring ESC on all vehicles

When it comes to advocating ESC on all vehicles, the following quote from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) says it all:

“In Institute studies, ESC has been found to reduce fatal single-vehicle crash risk by 56 percent and fatal multiple-vehicle crash risk by 32 percent for cars and SUVs. Many single-vehicle crashes involve rolling over, and ESC effectiveness in preventing rollovers is even more dramatic. It reduces the risk of fatal single-vehicle rollovers by 80 percent for SUVs and by 77 percent for cars. If all vehicles were equipped with ESC, as many as 10,000 fatal crashes could be avoided each year.

“Federal studies also show large benefits. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates the installation of ESC reduces single-vehicle crashes of cars by 26 percent and single-vehicle crashes of SUVs by 48 percent. NHTSA estimates that ESC has the potential to prevent 64 percent of the passenger car rollovers and 85 percent of the SUV rollovers that would otherwise occur in single-vehicle crashes.”

The IIHS requires a vehicle to have ESC to earn their “Top Safety Pick” status. Although a growing number of vehicles already come equipped with ESC as standard or optional equipment (by 2007, the percentage of vehicles with ESC was ten times higher than in 1998), all cars, SUVs, pickups, and minivans built by the 2012 model year will have to have it.

Rollover Stability Control (RSC)

The tendency of SUVs to roll over under conditions that were previously thought safe has prompted the development of rollover stability control systems (RSC) that identify situations where a vehicle that is taking a turn too sharply or too fast could roll over, and then help to prevent this from happening. RSC employs the sensors and other components found on ABS, TCS, and ESC, along with a roll-rate sensor and other modifications. To be effective, RSC has to be sensitive enough to differentiate between critical situations and relatively harmless instability caused by variations in the surface of the road or roadside shoulders, or by uneven loads.

If the system senses a potentially hazardous situation, it applies pressure to the brakes on the wheel or wheels on the vehicle closest to the outside of the turn, which helps keep the inside wheels on the ground. First introduced as an option on higher-priced vehicles, RSC is becoming available on more vehicles as time goes on.

Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)

Cruise control has been around for quite a while and is standard on most passenger vehicles today. However, adaptive cruise control (ACC) transforms cruise control into a system that can be programmed to maintain a safe distance between your car and the vehicle in front of you and to provide protection if a crash seems imminent.

Adaptive cruise control is available on a growing number of vehicles, and systems vary from one automaker to another. Variations include the ability to not only set the distance but also the minimum time gap to the vehicle ahead. Some systems employ a laser-based system called lidar (an acronym for “light detecting and ranging”) and others use radar sensors to detect a slower vehicle in front of you and adjust your speed accordingly. Each system has its advantages and drawbacks: Lidar is less expensive but has a shorter range and doesn’t operate as well in wet weather conditions that require windshield wipers or if the vehicle ahead is too dirty to reflect light properly. Radar is more expensive but doesn’t have these problems. At pres-ent, radar seems to be more popular.

On ACC systems with forward collision warning (sometimes called collision mitigation systems), if the driver ahead brakes suddenly, a flashing red light can appear on your windshield along with an audible alarm. ACC systems also may include collision warning with brake support (CWBS) that will prepare your brakes for a panic stop. Additional features of ACC systems can tighten seat belts and deploy air bags in critical situations.

Because of the high percentage of rear-end accidents, there’s strong support for mandating that vehicles be equipped with ACC and other collision prevention systems until your vehicle does most of the driving for you, staying in lane and changing lanes at safe distances from surrounding vehicles and obstacles and responding faster to critical situations than human drivers can. I can hardly wait!

Telematics: How Cars Communicate

Telematics (a term derived from combining the terms “telecommunication” and “informatics”) is the technical term for the wireless systems that enable your vehicle to communicate with the outside world. The information exchanged often involves GPS (global positioning systems) and can include where you are and the best way to get where you want to go, your vehicle’s speed and condition, where other vehicles in the vicinity are and how fast they’re going, the nearest restaurant or gas station, instant traffic reports, Bluetooth and other phone and instant messaging systems, music downloads, and other vital stuff. This section describes the most popular ways that telematic systems can make driving easier and safer. Services provided by individual systems overlap, so the telematic system in a particular vehicle may combine the features of one or more of the following systems.

Navigation systems

Navigation systems have become increasingly popular as standard or optional equipment and also are available as stand-alone aftermarket units that can mount on the dashboard or above the windshield, and as part of in-dash aftermarket stereo and DVD systems with pop-up or fixed display screens.

All navigation systems are based on GPS technology that receives satellite signals that determine your exact longitude and latitude. When you enter the address of your destination or the name of a place of interest on a touch keypad, a CD that’s loaded with street maps and installed in your vehicle enables the system to determine the best route. Most systems allow you to modify the suggested routes by stipulating that you don’t want to take freeways, go over bridges, or drive on unpaved roads, and offer you a choice of the shortest, fastest, and other alternative routes.

These are the types of navigation features you may encounter:

Built-in navigation systems provide spoken turn-by-turn directions through the vehicle’s audio system as well as a choice of map displays that enable you to zoom in or out, orient by the compass or the direction in which your vehicle is traveling, and so on. Most built-in systems will locate a variety of establishments in a specific area, including restaurants, service stations, hospitals, police stations, parks, and other places of interest.

Aftermarket navigation systems vary from some that are little more than a basic GPS to others that will provide oral directions and a full spectrum of information.

Navigation services have been incorporated into cellphones, PDAs, computers, and other electronic devices.

Tracking systems

Tracking systems employ a combination of GPS, cellular, and other electronic technologies to enable a vehicle to communicate its location and condition to an outside source. Tracking systems are used to locate stolen vehicles; monitor the location of every vehicle in a commercial fleet; and enable worried parents to keep track of where their kids are driving, how fast they’re going, and whether seat belts are engaged.

Tracking systems have been criticized for “spying” on people, just as every device that incorporates GPS technology (including cellphones) has come under suspicion that it may be used by “Big Brother” to keep an eye on everyone’s whereabouts. At least this invasion of privacy is currently optional and can help you keep track of your kids and recover a stolen car! Following are good examples of the range of telematic tracking services available. I’m not endorsing them, as they each have competent competitors. For a comparison of the features of various telematic services go to www.edmunds.com/media/editorial/telemetrics/popout.html.

OnStar

OnStar was the first widely available telematic system in North America. It uses a combination of GPS, cellular technology, voice recognition, and MapQuest data to connect you with its Call Center and provide you with a variety of services. OnStar enables you to communicate verbally with live and virtual advisors, get directions, report an accident or a flat tire, or announce that you need the doors unlocked for you. In an emergency, your vehicle can communicate its position and condition with no human assistance at all! Sensors that report that air bags have been deployed activate an automatic message that the vehicle has been in an accident, and even if nobody in the vehicle is able to communicate verbally, the service can call 911 and send help. Additional options can include automatic diagnostics and hands-free access to e-mail, weather reports, and stock quotes. Most major domestic and international automakers now offer systems similar to OnStar, so factor this in when deciding which vehicle best satisfies your needs and budget.

LoJack

LoJack is a tracking system that offers two packages that can work together or separately. If you report that your vehicle has been stolen, LoJack’s Stolen Vehicle Recovery System inaudibly transmits a unique code connected to the vehicle’s unique VIN as well as the present location of the vehicle to police cruisers with tracking computers within a 25-mile range. LoJack claims a 90 percent recovery rate, and the system qualifies for a deduction on some insurance policies. LoJack’s Early Warning Recovery System alerts you when your vehicle is being moved without your permission by sensing that someone who isn’t carrying LoJack’s Key Pass is at the wheel.