ANTHONY FOWLER
How are we going to keep personal transportation safe in the future?
Anthony Fowler.
Thesis Paper
Mike Podmore
April 14, 2016
Outline
THESIS: To make personal transportation safer we need to make the body of cars more durable so they don’t crush or cave in on people if they roll a car or even if they run into guard rail and etc..
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In the 1900’s was when the first vehicle was made, Model T. Obviously in the 1900’s private car safety was not so safe, back then they didn’t even have seat belts. Having a car back then was very risky to drive because there was zero safety besides having the body of the car which didn’t do much. Now in the present we have all these cars that have air bags, we have seat belts and also with the air bags we have them in the doors sides but we have had those for a few years now. We have definitely have progressed in personal car safety by a long shot since the 1900’s but, obviously car safety is still not enough because kids and adults are still dying from fatal car accidents. Dealerships should start looking at safety more than what the car looks like because yes i do agree it is nice to have a nice looking car but think about it, is it going to keep you safe? Also i think people that are going to buy cars should really look into car safety, even teenagers that might be buying there first car or if there parents are buying them a car. Cars can go really fast and it’s scary how fast a car can go in the matter of seconds and when it gets going the only thing that can stop it is honestly another car or something that never moves ever. Car dealerships need to start thinking about safety more than the looks and how fast it goes especially faster cars, the faster the car, the
safer it needs to be but, that's not necessarily true. Some cars are really safe and people still are dying. So why are people still dying, is the safety in our cars not at its full potential? The three point seat belt was invented in 1959 and that is our modern seat belt system now. Then the airbags were invented in the mid 1970’s and i am pretty sure that we still use the same kind of airbag system but now, we have airbags in the sides of the doors. Even with all these upgrades on cars today in the present people are still dying. Sometimes people don't even wear seatbelts i mean that is why we created them is to keep ourselves safe but fatalities still happen even when they have seatbelts on. So what can we do to make personal vehicles more safe? Maybe we need the body of the car to be able to take less damage. Or maybe just make the chassis of the car stronger so it doesn't crush or cave in on people. Mainly cars that can withstand an accident, something to take away the force of the other car so it doesn't destroy the vehicle. We are progressing in technology every day so i know for a fact that our cars will be a lot safer in the future but why aren't we making them safer now, what’s stopping us from progressing the safety of personal transportation? I dont know whats stopping us but hopefully we can fix this repetitive problem of people dying from fatal accidents, or maybe it’s the people and not the cars. Some people don’t wear seatbelts or some drive above the speed limit and something happens to them and even most drive without a seat belt and still go over the speed limit! No matter what we tell people, people will always break the law and not wear seatbelts or going to fast, nobody really obeys the law. Another problem for fatal accidents is texting and driving and also drugs and alcohol. So no matter what we try and do car can not be safe. Us as human beings i think we choose not to be safe, maybe the safety for cars is really at its full potential but we aren’t using it in the correct way of how we are supposed to be using it. Example, we have made seatbelts so long ago and the purpose of them was so people would strap themselves to the seat of the car and it would keep them safe. Well not everybody is wearing their seatbelts. Most of the people that get in fatal car accidents are teenagers, the age is between 16-19 year olds.
“In the United States, teenagers drive less than all but the oldest people, but their numbers of crashes and crash deaths are disproportionately high. 1 United States, the fatal crash rate per mile driven for 16-19 year-olds is nearly 3 times the rate for drivers ages 20 and over. Risk is highest at ages 16-17. In fact, the fatal crash rate per mile driven is nearly twice as high for 16-17 year-olds as it is for 18-19 year-olds.” (IIHS).
In 2014 the number of teenagers that have died in a fatal car accident is 2,614. And of course it's not just teenagers dying in fatal accidents. The real question of all of this is what should we do to stop all these accidents to keep people safe so nobody has to deal with anymore grief from having a friend pass away in an accident of a family member nobody wants that anymore it's happened to much in the past few years. Since we as human beings are progressing into the future now we are starting to make self driving vehicles and they say it's supposed to be pretty safe. THis car that we are preparing for the future can literally drive itself but of course it has to learn the roads but is it going to keep people safe from the danger of accidents? When someone dies in an accident we ask ourselves, how could they have avoided that/Well for starters they could have done a lot but not everybody thinks everything through. I just recently had a friend pass away from a bad accident. No he was not wearing a seatbelt, yes he was probably going over the speed limit. And yes he was drinking sadly enough. Why do we do dumb things like this with something that’s bigger than us and heavier and could kill us in a heartbeat if we aren't careful. I will show a statement of how many have died and how many were injured in 2015.
“The National Safety Council estimates 38,300 people were killed and 4.4 million injured on U.S. roads in 2015, which saw the largest one-year percentage increase in half a century.” (JASON REDMOND/REUTERS).
That is just a ton of deaths and a ton of injuries and that's updated from last year. So maybe we should start considering the safety of personal vehicles because i'm tired of people dying from car accidents so again, what can we do to make cars safer? I have said before that we should really focus on the build of the car so it can withstand a collision or if somebody rolls it won't cave in or crush but of course we need something that can take the force of a collision or somebody crashing into something, or we need to make a better seat belt system, there are so many things that we can upgrade to make cars safer but it's hard to know what is killing people, i mean it's all of it just the car itself injures people but we need cars in this day and age. Everything is important that has to do with the safety, every safety thing inside of a vehicle is super important and maybe we should focus on all of it because the safety is one huge thing and maybe we will have upgraded seat belts, airbags, framework, etc.. It’s not always the car though which is weird, do we need to have people start learning to be safer than normal. When i get on the road i always see people speeding everywhere i go and it's like they don't realize they are risking their lives. Everything is the problem people speed and are reckless and some cars can’t withstand a collision so it completely destroys the car and kills the driver or passengers. I've been thinking about when i get my degree in automotive i want to help make safer cars and keep people safe. I have seen some pictures and everyone else has seen how damaged cars can get and how they can get smashed and it's horrifying. You think that the frame can take a lot of damage but obviously not a whole lot because you see some cars that don't even look like they had a frame because it was destroyed. The very first two car accidents were pretty interesting but not as bad as today’s but, they didn't have the safety we have today so when they did crash they mo0re than likely died or suffered from injuries.
“That depends on how you define a “car.” In 1869, Irish scientist Mary Ward was riding in a steam-powered automobile built by her cousins. As they rounded a bend in the road, Ward was thrown from her seat and fell in the vehicle’s path. One of the wheels rolled over her and broke her neck, killing her instantly.” (Unknown)
That was just a test for a steam powered car that her cousins made her and she fell out because they didn't have seat belts. Then i have another article to show you around the same time as the first one.
“Ohio City, Ohio claims the first accident involving a gasoline-powered auto, a little closer to what most of us think of as a car today. In 1891, engineer James Lambert was driving one of his inventions, an early gasoline-powered buggy, when he ran into a little trouble. The buggy, also carrying passenger James Swoveland, hit a tree root sticking out of the ground. Lambert lost control and the vehicle swerved and crashed into a hitching post. Both men suffered minor injuries.”(unknown)
No matter where we go or what we do cars can be dangerous and that's why every parent or adult says it is a privilege. Yes, driving can be fun such as road trips or going camping but if you're messing around there will be consequences either involving an accident or getting pulled over. Some don't like the police because they think they are out to get you and to purposely pull you over, which is not true they keep teenagers and adults from causing an accident so there aren't lives lost. They basically keep us in check while they are on the road to make sure we are being responsible.
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