Are new cars really safer?

I’m sure that like me you believe that cars are getting safer as the years go by.  It has been a steady progress right through from seatbelts being introduced, airbags, and crumple zones being the standard to follow.  Indeed, you will see car after car achieving 5 stars in the EuroNCAP tests.  Even modestly priced cars strive to achieve good crash ratings.  After all, who can forget the impact that the EuroNCAP crash tests had on the Metro.  When the results came out sales stopped virtually overnight.  It was so bad.  But of course, it wasn’t the only one, it just had the misfortune to be the first test published by EuroNCAP.    

So there we have it, cars are getting safer.  Or are they?  Well, if your intent is ramming a car in to a wall or having a collision with another vehicle, the answer is clearly yes.  The evidence shows it.  But what evidence is also showing is that while you will be able to walk away from a Road Traffic Collision (quite rightly we don’t call them accidents now) that even a few years ago would have ended with pretty serious consequences, the actual business of driving, for the first time since the car was invented, is becoming less safe.  In other words, while you may have a much better of surviving a cash, the chances of ending up in one are also increasing.

The American Automobile Association (AAA) analysed 30 popular new vehicles released in 2017 and found that nearly half had infotainment systems that placed a “very high” demand on their users’ concentration.  Indeed, it argues that sophisticated in-car “infotainment” systems are putting road users' lives at risk and are more dangerous than texting.    

According to their research integrated suites that combine satellite navigation with music and Internet systems are often needlessly complicated and can take drivers’ eyes off the road for a staggering 40 seconds at a time.     

Don’t think this is a problem just in the USA.  Last week the UK Government published statistics on road deaths in 2016 which revealed that deaths from crashes resulting from in-vehicle distractions, infotainment systems to use the jargon, had risen 39 per cent on the previous year to 140.  In other words, 8% of UK road deaths are caused by people operating their infotainment systems.  And another 1,798 seriously injured.  That's a lot.

Next time you pop into a car showroom you will see what I mean.  There is now a complete lack of tactile experience in a car.  In one car I looked at I had to activate a touch screen, visually locate the heating controls that were now controlled by an icon on the touch screen and then gently “turn” it to adjust the temperature.  Three actions.  All the time my eyes were not focused on the road ahead.  In an older car you would have not taken your eyes off the road.  You would have just reached forward and felt a knurled wheel and turned it.   

The RAC Foundation have taken a view:  “We strongly urge drivers to avoid the temptation of engaging with technology that distracts them from the mentally-demanding job of driving,” said road safety spokesman Pete Williams. 

“You could be deemed by a police officer not to be in proper control of the vehicle, be prosecuted for dangerous driving, or worse still be responsible for taking a life."   

I wonder when EuroNCAP will add safety before a crash to their assessments of how safe a car really is?