What Safety Features to Look for in Your Car and What they Actually Do!

Safety is a very important consideration. But how many of us actually know what safety features are in our cars and what do they actually do?  Read on to find out saftey

High NCap crash test scores:
NCap crash test scores give crucial insight into the kind of protection offered by a vehicle. Specifically, look for a four- or five-star crash test rating.  NCAP is the industry standard, click here to visit their website to find out the cars test scores for your car

Advanced frontal airbags:
These airbag systems feature sensors which consider factors like occupant size, seat position and crash severity to determine the level at which driver frontal and passenger frontal airbags will inflate. Advanced frontal airbags are designed to be better than current airbags when it comes to saving lives. Notably, this system also effectively reduces the risk of an airbag-related injury or death to children and small-framed adults.

Side-impact and side curtain airbags:
Side-impact airbags are mounted in either the seat backs or doors and protect the torso during side-impact crashes. Generally, they are offered only for the front occupants (because of the potential injury risk to small rear occupants riding in child-safety seats), but some manufacturers give you the option to get them in the backseat as well. Side curtain airbags (also known as head curtain airbags) generally span the length of the cabin and provide head protection for outboard occupants in side-impact collisions. Side curtains also protect occupants in the event of a rollover, by helping to keep everyone inside the vehicle, which is safer.

Antilock braking system (ABS):

ABS prevents a vehicle's wheels from locking up by rapidly applying intermittent brake pressure. This system generally kicks in during heavy braking applications, but lighter braking on slick roads may also cause it to activate. There are two chief benefits to ABS: shorter stopping distances on slippery surfaces and the maintenance of steering control. Although an ABS-equipped vehicle won't always stop more quickly than those without, it will give the average driver more control in emergency situations.

Traction control:
Traction control works at the opposite end of the scale from ABS — dealing with acceleration rather than deceleration. Let's say you're at a traffic light on wet pavement. The light turns green and you press too firmly on the accelerator pedal. There is slick road under your tyres and the wheels begin to spin. The traction control system instantaneously kicks in, sensing that the wheels have begun to slip. Within a fraction of a second, this data is fed back to the control unit, which adjusts throttle input and applies braking force to slow the wheels (some older systems also retarded engine spark). The wheels are thus prevented from spinning and the car maintains maximum traction.

Stability control:
This is an important active safety system that uses sensors to monitor how closely your vehicle's path matches your intended path based on steering, throttle and brake inputs. When appropriate, such a system can apply braking forces to individual wheels and reduce engine power to prevent dangerous skids. Stability control can help the driver maintain control during emergency manoeuvres and is especially useful for larger vehicles with a high centre of gravity.

Child safety-seat compatibility:

Isofix are small metal brackets fitted to the frame of the car which make securing your baby seat much easier & safer.  It's very difficult to fit an isofix seat wrongly - but not all iso fix seats are compatible with iso-fix cars, please check with the baby-seats manufacturer.

Tyre-pressure monitoring system:
In most cases, when a tyre fails, the cause is under inflation. A tyre-pressure monitoring system uses a dashboard warning light to let the driver know when a tyre doesn't have enough air to be driven on safely.

When a tyre is under inflated, most of the car's weight is concentrated on the tread that's located just under the sidewalls, rather than being spread out evenly across the full width of the tyre. This means that as the tyre rolls, the sidewall gets continually flexed (squished, if you will) and heats up. This affects both performance and safety. In addition to degrading the handling of the vehicle (via the mushy steering response courtesy of the flexing sidewalls), a tyre that's considerably low on air can blow out due to the stress from the heat buildup and the constant flexing of the sidewall.

Check your tyre pressure at least once a month, perhaps on the first of the month to make it easy to remember. And while you're at it, give the tyres a once-over and look for uneven wear patterns as well as cut or bulging sidewalls.

Rear parking sensors:

In larger vehicles it's difficult to get a sense of what's behind you when you're reversing. This can be a dangerous problem if there are small children around, such as when you're picking up your child after school. Rear parking sensors (sometimes called Rear Park Assist) ensure that you're made aware of objects behind you when the vehicle is in reverse. Usually, notification comes via audible beeps, but some systems use pillar-mounted light displays as well. Some manufacturers have gone a step beyond sensors by installing a rear-mounted camera that projects an image onto the vehicle's navigation screen whenever the vehicle in put in reverse.

Active head restraints:
Often rear-end collisions result in whiplash for the victim. Active head restraints serve to automatically close the gap between an occupant's head and the head restraint, and can help prevent neck injuries.