Imagine you are driving in a car, travelling 80 kilometers per hour.
And then suddenly, the unfortunate happens.
A head-on collision, an abrupt full stop.
In a split second, all kinetic energy of you and your car
are transformed to heat, sound and deformation.
G-forces will extend world's scariest rollercoaster, causing a lot of internal damage.
No human body will like such an event.
But engineers do their job and have invented three major features
that drastically decrease injuries in such an event.
First: The crumple zone.
Did you know that the front part of your car is actually not that rigid?
You can see that even in a relatively small collision,
the outer part crumples a lot.
This will extend the length of the path in which your body deaccelerates to zero,
which reduces g-forces by more than 50 percent!
Furthermore, modern cars are equipped with airbags.
This head protecting device is the reason for an eleven percent reduction of fatalities.
Using a combination of potassium nitrate and sodium azide,
a quick explosion can be created to fill the airbag with nitrogen gas.
Like a balloon can deform if you push on it, so can a good airbag,
creating a softer landing for your head.
But this only works when the deployment of an airbag is timed perfectly.
I recommend you to watch this video to see what will happen if that's not the case..
Yet, the effectiveness of an airbag is not even remotely close to that of a seatbelt.
By keeping your body in your seat, seatbelts are estimated to reduce your change
of dying in an accident by 45 percent.
These three safety features are together with dozens of other ones
the reason that driving a car has become safer and safer in the past few decades.
However, still more than 5 million accidents - causing 35.000 fatalities –
happen in the United States alone annually.
Worldwide numbers reach 1.3 million deaths yearly.
But thé solution is coming.
Autonomous cars exist, and they are already way better than their meat-based competitors,
only continuing to get even more superior.
So give it 20 years and all this won't be needed anymore.
But for now, wear your seatbelt guys!
Drive save!
And if the unfortunate might ever happen, you know engineering will do the best it can
to protect you!
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