The top ten care safety features ranked for their benefit on car occupant and pedestrian safety are:

1. Seat belts. These ensure that the driver and passengers are not ejected from a car in event of a crash. They also prevent the driver and front seat passenger from hitting the steering wheel, windscreen or the dashboard. Note that they only work properly if correctly positioned and worn. Seat belts are elastic and help decelerate wearers in a controlled manner.
2. Front air bags. These provide additional protection to seat belts and their purpose is to control the rate at which car occupants decelerate. It is very important that seat belts are worn otherwise front air bags could cause injury.
3. Side air bags. These provide additional protection in the case of side impact or if a car rolls over. They are often installed in the roof rail and deploy downwards providing additional head protection.
4. Crumple zones. These are sacrificial regions of the car that deform in a crash and absorb energy in the process. They also serve to decelerate car occupants more gently that would be the case without them. They are located on front, rear and sometimes sides of the vehicle.
5. ABS (anti-lock braking system). This prevents a car from going into a skid when the brakes are applied strongly or on a slippery surface. The system detects when the car is skidding and applied brake pressure in a rhythmic manner to bring the car to a halt whist retaining the ability of the driver to steer the car.
6. EWSC (electronic safety control). This detects when a car is not cornering as the driver intended and corrects the situation by applying asymmetric braking to the wheels.
7. Rear parking sensors. These detect people and objects behind a car as the car is reversing into a parking space. The important safety benefit is to prevent children being run over. Many children are run over every year by reversing vehicles.
8. Active head restraints. These react to an impact by reducing the distance between the headrest and the occupant’s head and thus reduce the chance of whiplash type injuries.
9. Tyre pressure monitors. These provide an alarm signal should a tyre lose pressure and allow the driver to stop the car before a blowout occurs.
10. LDW (lane departure warning). This sends an alarm signal should the car drift away from the road lane.

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