New car safety requirements influencing safer driving

By Jameel Murray

The 2010 safest cars list have just been released by the private insurance industry. Compared to 2009’s 90 winners, 2010 only produced 27 highly rated safety cars. Among the highest rated safety cars were Ford, Subaru, and Volkswagen. Other winners included Chrysler, GM, and Honda. One big surprise was the exclusion of Toyota, who received eleven awards in 2009. Because the private insurance industry added new test requirements this year, many cars did not receive high safety ratings. One new requirement that was made this year was the durability of car rooftops to withstand rollovers. Many cars such as Toyota did not pass the rooftop durability test .
Innovative safety requirements such as the electronic stability control which allows drivers to maintain control of the car during a skid would encourage automakers to provide the safest and most technological features in their models. Consumers are able to benefit from the new test requirements implemented by the private insurance industry. The increased safety of future cars would eventually increase the welfare of drivers and hopefully keep insurance costs at a standstill.

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/economy-and-business/Insurance-Industry-Picks-Safest-Cars-of-2010-70610232.html

http://www.theweeklydriver.com/articles/1682/1/Cadillac-STS-Infiniti-M3545-get-poor-2010-marks-on-Insurance-Institute-for-Highway-Safety-ratings/Page1.html

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/insurance-institute-highway-safety-top-safety-picks-2010/story?id=9111489