Driving a car is the most dangerous thing most of us will ever do. While many are preventable, collisions are a daily reality in a city as big and bustling as Austin. Are you doing what you can to stay safe? It all starts with purchasing a reliable vehicle with outstanding safety features.
If you are on the hunt for a new vehicle, keep these features in mind to make your ride as safe as possible:
- Airbags: Front airbags are standard in cars today, but they’re not enough. Look for cars featuring side-impact and side-curtain airbags. Side-impact airbags protect the torso and should deploy from the seat, not the door. Side-curtain airbags deploy from the roof of the interior and protect the head from injury.
- Electronic Stability Control (ESC): ESC helps drivers maintain control during emergency maneuvers that would normally lead to side-skidding or rollovers. This feature has been found to reduce fatal single-vehicle crash risk by 49% and fatal multi-vehicle crash risk by 20%. Vehicles must have ESC to make the “Safest Car” list put out by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and Consumer Reports magazine.
- Pre-Collision System: This feature detects an impending frontal collision and braces the vehicle for impact. The system will apply additional braking, raise head restraints and instantly retract seatbelts.
- Bluetooth Hands-Free System: Safely make and receive calls with this system. The voice-command feature allows you to stay in touch while focusing on your main task: driving. Plus, purchasing a car with this system saves you the trouble of buying and installing it yourself.
- Crashworthiness (yes it’s a word…): It is of prime importance to settle on a car that is ranked highly by the IIHS, whose crash tests are more rigorous than the ones conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The IIHS conducts five different crash tests to determine how a vehicle ranks. Vehicles are then labeled “good”, “acceptable”, “marginal”, or “poor”.
Looking for the right car can take time, but it’s well worth it when you consider the impact it could have on your safety.