THE SAFER SENSE OF FREEDOM

THE SAFER SENSE OF‍‍‍ FREEDOM

In the early days, the car stood for one thing above all else: a new dimension of freedom. The sense of freedom was so strong that hardly anyone gave a thought to the risks involved. Today, safety has‍‍‍ become a main consideration in the field of road traffic. Through “Vision Zero”, industry, legislators, and trade associations have set a goal of reducing road fatalities to zero.

The Three-Point Life-Sa‍‍‍ver

The advent of the seat belt finally put an end to rising accident statistics. When wearing seat belts became mandatory, road fatalities dropped by more than 50 percent.

The effectiveness of this life-saver becomes even clearer when we look at the actual numbers: While in 1971, Germany posted the highest number of road deaths ever recorded in a European country at over 21,300, in 2010 there were only some 4,000 fatalities. By 2015 this figure had fallen to 3,300, despite the fact that there were three times as many vehicles on the roads as in the early 1970s.

In 1985, the German Patent Office rightly acclaimed the invention of the three-point seat belt as one of the eight inventions that had rendered the greatest service to humanity in the past 100 years.

Sadly, in our country, a 2014 study by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety found that only 8.6% of rear passengers use seat belts. The same study also found that passengers improve their chances of surviving an accident by as much as 44% if they had chosen to buckle up.

Safety has now become established as an important criterion for car buyers in western industrialized nations and numerous products and innovations from the automobile industry have made further decisive contributions to greater road safety.

First Towns Record Zero Road Fatalities

The accident statistics provide clear-cut arguments for the use of new technologies and safety systems. And if, as a result, the number of accidents, serious injuries and fatalities continues to fall, then the notion of a future with zero road deaths is n‍‍‍o longer utopian.

Consequently, as one of the world‘s leading automotive suppliers, Continental has joined with other market players, legislators and associations in supporting the international “Vision Zero” initiative.

The fact that “Vision Zero” is already – at least temporarily – a reality in several German towns is illustrated by the 2015 Road Safety Report issued by the technical inspectorate DEKRA, itself a supporter of the “Vision Zero” initiative: In Germany today there are 100 towns with more than 50,000 inhabitants that have come through at least 12 months with zero road fatalities.

Among them are six towns that have even recorded zero road deaths over a four-year period: Bad Homburg, Dormagen, Hürth, Kerpen, Neustadt an der Weinstraße and Velbert. At pan-European level, 600 towns have so far remained without a single road fatality for a 12-month period, while no fewer than 16 of these places have reached four years with zero road deaths.

There is every indication that, in future, more and more towns and cities will be able to report zero fatalities on their roads. So why should this be inconceivable for whole regions or evencountries? The seat belt was just the beginning of a whole series of technical innovations that today make driving safer and will ultimately lead to automated driving, eliminating one of the main causes of accidents: human error.

Proven: Innovation‍‍‍s‍‍‍ Saving Lives Since 1953

The list starts with such simple things as head restraints and the technologies we now take for granted, such as brake servo and power steering. Another item of standard equipment these days is the airbag, which since its arrival has bred a whole family of side, head, chest, knee, foot and backseat airbags and in the shape of the pedestrian airbag is now even available on the outside of the vehicle.

Anti-lock brakes (ABS) have led to decisive reductions in braking distances and prevented countless accidents or at least mitigated the consequences. Emergency Brake Assist (EBA) goes one step further by intervening automatically to brake the car if the distance to the vehicle in front closes to a critical level and the driver fails to slow down, while electronic stability programme (ESP) prevents the car from skidding or even roll-ing over in response to abrupt steering inputs.

In sum, today we have a whole series of advanced driver assistance systems that – individually and through their interaction – make driving safer than ever, despite higher levels of traffic on the roads.

There were times, not so long ago, when some drivers thought it was more important to avoid creasing their suits and dresses than to improve their chances of arriving safely at their destination.

What may sound like a poor joke was actually a consideration raised in earnest in the debate over the introduction of seat belts in the 1970s. At the time, it was not a very popular invention, for it symbolically seemed to undermine the very sense of freedom that car ownership conveyed.

Back then, safety played a minor role in the driving scenario, but the seat belt was about to star in the shift to greater awareness of the inherent risks. First, in 1974, automakers in Germany were obliged by law to fit every new car with three-point seat belts of the type still used today. Unimpressed, drivers largely ignored this innovation, with just one in ten choosing to buckle up. Even when wearing a seat belt became mandatory in 1976, not much changed. It not until 1984 when a fine of DM 40 was imposed on drivers not wearing their belts that usage levels soared from 60 to 90 percent.

Today, across Europe almost every vehicle occupant wears a seat belt. Studies in Germany reveal a level of well over 90 percent. And should anyone forget to belt up, their car will duly sound the alarm. Also in other countries like Nigeria, 80 percent of drivers today‍‍‍ wear‍‍‍ seat belts.

Source: German Federal Motor Vehicle Office, rounded figures

The statistics speak volumes: Every new safety technology has reduced the number of accident victims despite ever increasing levels of traffic. “Vision Zero” stands for the systematic continuation of this process.

New Rubber on an Old Car – Proving that Tyres Are Your Most Important Safety Feature

To demonstrate how decisive the tyres are in terms of how a vehicle handles, irrespective of all safety and driver assistance systems, Continental has come up with an unusual test.

At wintry proving grounds in Austria, the company provided a set of its latest TS 860 ContiWinterContact tyres and a new set of its TS 790 V tyres, launched back in 2000. Also on the scene were examples of the E36 BMW 3 Series built in the 1990s going up against the latest generation BMW 1 Series.

The test was then set up as follows: The old BMWs were fitted with the new tyres, while the new cars were equipped with the old-style ones. Then both cars were sent out onto the snow-covered track.

For the high-tech car with the retro tyres, taking a long corner at 50 km/h already proved critical and it was only thanks to ESP that it didn’t end up in a snow drift. The rest of the lap was completed at a snail’s pace.

The modern TS 860 tyres, by contrast, proved their worth even on the 20 year-old car, delivering far better cornering even without an ESP system on board. The old E36 covered a full lap of the test track without drifting out of control.

This experiment clearly shows what immense gains in safety have been delivered by tyre technology alone over the past 15 years. In combination with the latest driver assistance systems, premium tyres make for a highly effective and holistic safety package.

The secret of modern tyres lies on the one hand in a new tread pattern and on the other in the “chemistry” of the tyres: Modifications to the molecular chains in the rubber compound mean that these tyres remain flexible and continue to offer good grip even at temperatures of minus ten Celsius. This Continental technology, which goes by the name of BlackChili, is also used in summer tyres.

The first seat belts were simple lap belts. Today, systems like Continental’s Active Emergency Belt Control pre-tensions the belts the instant before an impact, reducing injury risk by 15 percent.

Photo: National Archief Fotocollectie Anefo, Harry Pot