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Automobile Safety Essay

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People in developed countries all over the world have come to see automobiles as the preferred way to travel. They allow independence: point to point transportation without having to rely on others to get where we want to go, to do what we want to do. Long range travel and short range travel can be undertaken whenever one desires, either alone or with other people. Citizens of the modern world must often wonder how people ever lived without automobiles. To think that human beings once traveled everywhere by foot or on horseback is not just a humorous idea to reminisce; it is foreign concept that would not allow the social and business culture of today to exist.

It is almost as foreign a concept that early automobiles were driven …show more content…

Simple mistakes, that everyone makes, can lead to great harm. Even the most cautious and agile driver cannot avoid every possible stalled car, unexpected furniture, careless cell phone user, stray animal, unexpected construction, or drunken driver on the road.

Automobiles are therefore a huge source of potential injury, and even death. In the year 2001 alone, 37, 795 people lost their lives in automobile accidents in the United States. That is more people than the populations of many small cities in America. In fact, that is over ten times more lives lost than were lost in the horrible attack on the World Trade Center in 2001! On top of that, over two million people were injured in automobile accidents in the same time frame.3 Neither of these numbers includes the thousands of pedestrians who are killed or injured every year by automobiles.

Given the risks involved in the use of automobiles much consideration should be given to how to best make automobiles safer for humans. Often times, however, safety is not the first consideration in automobile design. Some automobile manufacturers do not even look carefully at safety considerations until a new product is sent down the crash test line and adjusted until it makes government safety requirements. On the other hand, some manufacturers start car design with safety as their first priority.

What Does Automobile Safety Have to Offer?

Safety systems inside an

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