Road safety is unarguably one of the leading concerns in India. Most cities in this country experience traffic congestion and varying driving conditions, which increases the number of road accidents. People across the country face unique challenges while driving their vehicles. This highlights the importance of understanding the available safety features and utilizing them for overall well-being.
Importantly, while vehicle safety features are vital in preventing accidents and reducing injuries, they are categorized into two groups: active and passive safety features. They aim to prevent accidents by helping drivers control their vehicles efficiently and making them alert to their surroundings.
On the other hand, passive car safety features are in place to reduce the impact on occupants inside the car in the event of an accident. Both play an integral role in enhancing overall road safety. This guide covers all the major safety features of car driving in the Indian context, aiming to raise awareness and promote safer driving practices.
Active Safety Features
Active safety features are designed to help drivers avoid accidents. They perform their tasks proactively, preventing potential crashes and enhancing vehicle control and stability. First, let us have a look at some of the key active safety features accessible in modern vehicles:
1. Anti-lock Braking System (ABS)
Functionality: ABS prevents the wheels from locking up during hard braking, which happens under sudden or emergency braking conditions. By sustaining wheel rotation, ABS enables the driver to retain steering control and avoid skidding.
Importance in India: In the Indian driving environment, individuals often need to apply their brakes abruptly to stop their cars due to unpredictable traffic conditions. Under such situations, ABS enhances vehicle stability and reduces the likelihood of skidding. This is vital for navigating congested roads, slippery or uneven surfaces, and avoiding accidents.
2. Electronic Stability Control (ESC)
Functionality: ESC aims to help drivers maintain optimal control of their cars when they lose traction or begin skidding. It works spontaneously to apply brakes to each wheel and adjust the engine’s power to stabilize it and avoid understeer or oversteer conditions.
Importance in India: The variable road conditions, with frequent sharp turns, make the ESC system highly important in preventing loss of vehicle control. It reduces the risk of skidding, especially during monsoon months when the roads become muddy and slippery.
3. Traction Control System (TCS)
Functionality: TCS aims to prevent the wheel from slipping, especially when accelerating the vehicle. Upon sensing the sign of slipping wheels, it applies the brake and reduces the engineer’s power to the spinning wheels. Thus, it helps retain traction on uneven or slippery surfaces.
Importance in India: TCS performs effectively to deal with the varied driving conditions in India. Loose gravel, slippery wet roads, and uneven countryside often lead to wheel spin and loss of traction.
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4. Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC)
Functionality: ACC helps by adjusting the vehicle’s speed to keep a safe distance from the car in front by setting a speed. By deploying a radar sensor, it senses the speed and distance of the car ahead and automatically adjusts your vehicle’s speed to avoid a possible crash.
Importance in India: Driving through congested traffic conditions is a common experience in India. ACC can be of immense help during this phase as it reduces driver fatigue by ensuring safe driving by maintaining a stable distance from vehicles ahead. Thus, it eliminates the chances of rear-end collisions.
5. Lane Departure Warning (LDW) and Lane-Keeping Assist (LKA)
Functionality: LDW and LAK are highly advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) enabling drivers to stay in their lane. While LDW alerts drivers if their vehicle drifts out of its lane involuntarily, LKA works proactively to steer the car back into its lane if needed.
Importance in India: With the prevalence of lane markings that often become faded or unclear, LDW and LKA help prevent accidents caused by unintentional lane departure, specifically on busy roads.
6. Blind Spot Monitoring (BSM)
Functionality: with its sensors, BSM notices vehicles approaching from behind or in the surrounding land, enabling you to shift lanes without leading to a possible collision.
Importance in India: BSM is most useful, specifically in congested city areas and expressways where vehicles often change lanes. This helps avoid collisions that could take place due to restricted visibility.
7. Seat Belt Reminder System (SBR)
Functionality: Fitted with sensors, the SBR system plays a significant role in the car’s safety driving. In case any occupant or driver does not wear a seatbelt, SBR alerts the driver with a cautionary chime or indicator on the dashboard panel.
Importance in India: To reduce injuries and deaths caused by not wearing seatbelts, the Government of India has mandated the inclusion of the SBR system in all modern automobiles. Notably, according to surveys, around 60% of unbuckled occupants use seatbelts after the implementation of the safety rule.
8. Rear-View Camera and Parking Sensors
Functionality: The rearview camera provides a clear and wider view of the area behind the vehicle, enabling drivers to check obstacles, other vehicles, and pedestrians in the blind spots. Similarly, the parking sensors help recognize obstacles and provide visual or audio alerts to assist while parking.
Importance in India: In highly populated areas and limited parking spaces, these tools assist drivers greatly in maneuvering their cars safely. This minimizes the possibility of collisions and accidents during parking or reversing.
9. Emergency Braking Assistance (EBA)
Functionality: The safety feature detects emergency braking situations and automatically applies optimal braking force if the driver does not react or uses less braking pressure.
Importance in India: EBA can minimize the severity of crashes significantly in heavy traffic landscapes where quick reactions are essential.
Passive Safety Features
Passive safety features are intended to protect passengers during an accident while reducing the severity of injuries and absorbing the impact of the crash. Have a closer look at the most vital passive safety features:
1. Airbags
Functionality: Airbags are one of the most innovative passive safety features added in modern vehicles in recent decades. The objective of airbags in cars is to protect the driver and front-seat occupants’ upper body and head from hitting the dashboard of the car during a crash. Some vehicles in India also come equipped with side as well as curtain airbags to protect rear seat passengers.
Importance in India: In an accident-prone country like India, the role of airbags cannot be underrated in reducing the risk of severe injuries to casualties in car crashes.
2. Seat Belts
Functionality: Seatbelts help occupants remain on their seats during a crash. This reduces the possible chances of being thrown from the vehicle and lessens the risk of injuries to the brain, neck, or organ damage.
Importance in India: Wearing seatbelts is a legal rule in India to prevent occupants of vehicles, including the driver, from life-threatening injuries and casualties caused by car crashes or emergency braking.
3. Crumple Zones
Functionality: Crumple zones are precisely the areas of a car designed to absorb the impact and crumple during a collision. The areas deform to lessen the impact transferred to the passengers, thus minimizing the severity of the injury and keeping the integrity of the occupants’ cabins.
Importance in India: Crumple zones are essential to absorb the impact forces of collisions and the overall safety of occupants due to varying road conditions and highly dense traffic in India.
Due to diverse road conditions and dense traffic patterns, crumple zones play a critical role in absorbing collision forces to ensure occupant safety.
4. Reinforced Safety Cage
Functionality: A robust safety cage or passenger cabin forms a protective zone for occupants. This maintains the structural integrity of the cabin in case of a collision.
Importance in India: The feature is vital to ensure the passenger compartment remains intact and would provide maximum protection during a serious collision.
5. Head Restraints
Functionality: Head restraints, aka headrests, are intended to avoid whiplash injuries in the event of a rear-end collision by supporting the head and neck of occupants.
Importance in India: In light of the frequent rear-end collisions in urban areas, head restraints play a major role in minimizing neck injury while ensuring the safety of occupants.
6. Anti-Theft Technology
Functionality: Anti-theft technology ranging from advanced keyless entry systems to electronic immobilizers helps prevent unauthorized access and tampering with safety systems.
Importance in India: Anti-tampering technologies have enriched car safety systems, making them comprehensive and effective, addressing concerns about vehicle security or theft. This ensures the safety and security of its occupants.
7. Pedestrian Protection Systems
Functionality: These safety systems aim to minimize injury to pedestrians in case of a collision. Features including pedestrian airbags and active bonnets work by absorbing and dissipating the energy of impact.
Importance in India: In bustling urban centers with high population density, especially in townships and areas where pedestrian traffic is abundant, the deployment of PPSs plays a crucial role in reducing pedestrian injuries while improving general road safety.
Automotive Safety Standards in India – An Outlook
The growing road traffic, varied driving conditions, and escalating number of casualties caused by car accidents are the key factors that have emphasized the necessity of safe driving practices in India. Active and passive safety features for Indian roads have become standard in the automotive industry, and car owners are legally required to use most of these systems.
The introduction of vehicle safety regulations like the Bharat New Vehicle Safety Assessment Program (BNVSAP) by the Indian government and mandates of the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) are remarkable steps to promote awareness among car owners about safety features, encouraging higher adoption rates.
With the continuous development, the safety features in the automotive industry are seeing a surge in the usage of cutting-edge V2X technology. Similarly, emerging technologies like AI, blockchain, etc., are likely to make the industry more enriched and secure.
Conclusion
In light of the above discussion, both active and passive safety features play a central role in preventing road accidents while minimizing injuries and casualties of drivers and passengers in India.
Having a clear understanding of the functions and benefits of these safety features can immensely help car owners and drivers make well-informed decisions, contributing to a safer driving environment. As technology continues to advance and safety regulations evolve, automotive safety in India looks promising in the upcoming days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What are the safety standards for cars in India?
In India, car safety standards fall under the purview of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). These standards are formulated according to Automotive Industry Standards (AIS), conforming to the Global Technical Regulations (GTRs). They are structured to conform to international regulations, including the Global Technical Regulations (GTRs) established by the United Nations.
Q2. Can I incorporate advanced safety features into a pre-owned car?
Yes! You can easily add cutting-edge car safety features to your vehicle. Nowadays, reputable car dealers and service centers have complete car safety kits that can be installed in your car.
Q3. What is an Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS)?
With a collection of safety tools involving sensors and cameras, the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) system ensures enhanced vehicle safety. It assists drivers in effectively avoiding collisions and other potential hazards while driving with real-time information and alerts.
Q4. What is a High-Speed Alert System?
Speed alert system refers to the safety tool that warns drivers and passengers once a vehicle exceeds its set speed limit. Working with Real-time GPS, it alerts you with a bright LED display along with buzzing.
Q5. What is a child safety lock?
The child safety lock is a vital safety feature in a car that prevents kids from unlocking or opening the rear doors while the car is moving or parked. In general, in most cars, child safety locks are located in the rear doors. Make sure to read the user’s manual to know how to turn the child lock on or off.
