The ‘I’ve got a safe car’ trap
Most vehicles, especially at the top of the range, have design capabilities far in excess of the average driver’s skill, however, this does not mean that they are safe, simply that they are safer – the driver can still panic and hit things.
When you hit things in a ‘safe’ car the secondary safety features will protect you to a degree, but what about other road users? The people you crash into? Volvo’s are amongst the safest cars on the road but the driver of the one in the picture was killed after it spun through air and smashed into an first floor flat – his nine year old son, a passenger survived, but his life won’t be the same without his dad.
Secondary safety is the vehicles built in safety – crumple zones, collapsible steering columns, air bags, etc. Secondary safety might save you – as it saved the nine year old in this crash with just cuts and bruises – but a car’s safety features can’t protect you from the mental scars and post accident stress which lives with some people for a lifetime.
And… Although cars are made out of modern, impact absorbing materials, kids on bikes are still made out of what they always were, good old skin and bone with a few soft internal bits – and they don’t have built in air-bags.
Primary safety is what you do …
It doesn’t matter how safe your car is – It’s not idiot proof!
