re is car saftey important s in a previous article jimf centerline com jim frost says jnielsen magnus acs ohio state edu john f nielsen writes in article r jr m v armory centerline com jimf centerline com jim frost writes tcorkum bnr ca trevor corkum writes i figure that mph collisions into brick walls aren t common enough for me to spend that much extra money for protection but there are lots of low speed collisions that do worry me get into an mph accident and you may reconsider i ve been in one and it is really scarey my life is something i value more than a car s looks or handeling consider it insurance it may not happen often but when it does you ll sure be glad you got a safe car granted the tests aren t perfect but i d much rather be in a car that did well in the test than a car that did horribly you raise a valid point but again it s a tradeoff how much money do you want to spend for that kind of protection you could buy a volvo saab or benz and get really good crash protection and other luxuries but you ll pay significantly more for it in my case it s out of the question because all of those cars are beyond my budget i ve been in two major auto accidents both were multiple car the worst was a head on three car collision t intersection and one person ran a stop sign in both cases i was stopped and had no place to go and i saw it coming both times even in high speed head on collisions the most beneficial item you can have is a good old point seatbelt nowadays at least in the us you get an airbag if you get a point belt so presumably you get an added safety benefit there as well that s something i certainly look for and which can be had in inexpensive cars if you really want to add safety to any car simply add a cage to the car they are available and cheap about in the usa add to that four or five or six point belts and you will walk away from collisions that were otherwise not survivable but instead of people spending a little extra money we get legislation that says the gov t must mandate a minimal level of protection for everyone one other significant factor in improving one s own safety is to get some training this will improve your safety more than any other single investment will drive ride defensively and that does not mean you have to be a doddering old stick in the mud people here tend to enthuse about autos more than the average probably in the top th percentile in driving ability but still we sometimes overlook the obvious i ve been to two driving schools and three riding schools for my motorcycle a very worthwhile investment and besides it was a lot of fun too safety is what you make of it just because a carmaker doesn t provide you with an adequate level of protection doesn t mean you have to leave it go at that al bowers dod alfa ducati hobie kottke blad iaido nasa well goodness sakes don t you know that girls can t play guitar mary chapin carpenter
