&gt; important to realize that the majority of automobile safety improvements came before 1960:<p>This is an absurdly false claim.  Cars in the 60s had bias ply tires (which blew out frequently and had no traction),  drum brakes (awful), single circuit brake systems that would fail if there was a leak, solid rear axles (tail happy), lap belts (if anything).<p>Old cars were several orders of magnitude more difficult and dangerous to drive.  Airbags, ABS, crumple zones, traction&#x2F;stability control, and radial tires have all massively improved the safety of driving.<p>Car safety has improved so much in the past 10 years that the NHSTA and IIHS have needed to make their tests more stringent because so many cars were getting perfect scores.  A ten year old Camry would have a perfect score in 2006, but would likely fail a 2016 crash test.