This article briefly describes a recent report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on vehicle safety technologies. Of theestimated 328,551 lives saved from 1960 to 2002, the breakdown of specific technologies is as follows: frontal airbags have saved 12,074 since 1994; improved door locks and latching mechanisms have saved an estimated 30,000 during the study's time span; new steering assemblies that compress ata controlled rate introduced in the late 1970s have saved 53,017 people; and, finally, the most effective safety technology by quite a margin was found to be the safety belt which has saved approximately 168,542 lives from 1960 to 2002.
Abstract