When you are buying a new car, its safety is definitely one of top priorities on your list among fuel efficiency, price, comfort and looks. Every car model is designed and produced with respect with government standards of safety and quality, however it doesn’t mean that all cars have the same level of safety. On the contrary. Some producers tend to make their cars a lot more safe than it is required by the standards, while others tend to meet the minimum requirements and leave it just there. So when you are looking for a your new car you would definitely want to look closer at its safety features. These elements will make it easier for you to evaluate the overall safety of the car:

Crashworthiness

Crashworthiness implies a whole set of features that reduces the risk of fatal injuries in case of an accident. You can learn the rating of cars according to this feature by addressing the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s Web site. This will give you a quick hint on which cars are generally safe and which ones aren’t.

Structural design of the car

The structural design of the car should be able to distribute the energy of the crash in a way so that the passengers and the driver would get minimum damage. This supposes the use of the so-called safety cage and additional front and rear ends that form a kind of a carcass in which the people are protected from serious injuries. This feature also improves the overall sturdiness of the vehicle.

Size and weight of the car

This is where size does matter. By simply using the laws of physics you can clearly see that heavier and larger vehicles are generally safer than their lighter peers. And the fatality statistics support this conclusion: lighter cars account twice as many deaths as the heavier ones. When a large and a small car crash into each other, the heavier car pushes back the lighter one. What happens here in terms of physics is that the forces of inertia decrease the impact on the heavier vehicle transferring it to the lighter one. As a result, you can consider yourself lucky if you were in the heavier car.

Restraint systems

Restraint systems include a whole set of accessories such as airbags, belts, head restraints and so on that all work accordance with the vehicle’s structural design to minimize the injuries cause to the driver and the passengers. Belts are generally used to hold you in place in the moment of the impact. Otherwise, the forces of inertia will make you move further while the car stops. This means you’ll be flying forward at the speed your car was driving at the moment of collision until something hard stops you. It can be the windshield. It can also be a tree 30 feet away from the crash site if you break the windshield with your head while flying.

Anti-lock brakes

Anti-lock brakes or anti-locking system (ABS) is a special breaking mechanism that gives much more control on the road t the driver if compared to simple traditional brakes. When you hit the brakes in a car with no ABS the wheels are locked which often cause lack of control and skidding. What does the ABS system do is pump the brakes automatically in order to prevent lock up of the wheels. It won’t make you stop faster but it will give you better control over your car while braking.