Many Houston readers who are looking to buy a new car likely care a great deal about the safety features a new car has to offer. Parents want the car that will provide the safest ride possible for their children. Federal transportation safety watchdogs weighed in this week, advocating for safer cars and trucks.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which cannot issue formal regulations but can make recommendations, suggested that all new cars and trucks contain collision prevention technology such as adaptive cruise control, automatic braking, collision warning and electronic stability control. According to the NTSB, installing these technologies in all cars would reduce fatal car accidents by more than half.
– Article By Richard Weaver
The obvious retort from the auto industry is that installing all these technologies on all new cars would drastically increase the cost of buying a car for consumers. But the chairwoman of the NTSB said that if the technology is required on all cars it would not be that expensive once it’s a standard feature on all makes and models.
“We don’t want safety to be only for the people who can afford it,” she said.
The recommendations came as part of the board’s annual wish list of the 10 safety features they want to see implemented. The list also recommended that cellphone usage while driving be banned across the country and across all modes of transportation. The board would like to see technology that prevents a cellphone from working when it’s within reach of a vehicle operator.
Could the new regulations help combat the rising tide of accidents caused by reckless driving? Or if someone knew there was an alarm would they become more engrossed in whatever they are doing and not pay attention to the road?
Source: Associated Press, “NTSB urges safety technologies be made standard,” Joan Lowy, Nov. 14, 2012