I was shocked to learn that when a car hits a solid object at 50 km per hour the impact on the driver or the passengers is equivalent to that of a body falling from a two-storey building. The head can hit the dashboard or even go through the windscreen while the chest can be crushed against the driving wheel. Crashes occur in a flash and the driver does not realise how dangerous they can be. I was once driving a car at a modest speed when another reckless car suddenly swerved in from a side street and hit my car before I had time to react. In those days there were no seat belts but I had gripped the steering wheel so hard that the wheel actually got bent.

All modern cars offer seat belts but most people do not realise how important they are. They not only stop you from being thrown forward but they also keep you firmly in your seat so that you can still operate the brakes and steering wheel and have some control over the crashing car. Some people also wrongly think that if they have air bags they need not fasten their seat belts, not realising that air bags are useless unless the seat belt is also fastened. In fact, they can be more dangerous since the expanding bags can nearly blind the driver who, if unsupported, may slide under the driving wheel and damage his knees. This is why air bags are called SRS or Supplementary Restraint System.

Many people only use the front seat belts and forget that people can also get seriously hurt or killed in the rear seats. The front seats may offer rear seat passengers some protection but they can still get badly hurt. When you are driving at high speeds on a highway or on a hilly road always ensure that all seat belts have been utilised.

Most modern cars also offer anti-skid braking systems (ABS). A car can skid dangerously on a wet road as water inside the grooves of tyres make them lose their grip on the road. When you use ABS brakes they let the wheels roll slowly to ensure that dry rubber constantly touches the road keeping the car under control. Many drivers pump their brakes to try to achieve a similar effect but it is very slow. ABS releases and shuts off the brake fluid to the brakes a dozen times a second. Modern cars also offer EBS traction control which is an electronic device that senses the behaviour of all four wheels and controls the hydraulic pressure on each of them to further improve your control. With ABS and traction control a driver should, I repeat SHOULD, press the brakes with full force and be assured that the car will not skid.

Today the greatest danger comes from distracted drivers. People behind the wheels do not realise that adjusting your hair may take as much time as covering 60 metres and dialling a mobile number would equal 160 metres, to say nothing about the time needed to take a ‘selfie’. Crashes occur in micro-seconds.

Modern cars have many other systems for safety including variable lighting where the beam adjusts according to different speeds. However purchasing all auto safety systems can make your car more expensive. Some drivers therefore take the cheaper option of avoiding as many safety features as they can, little realising that these decisions can endanger their lives and the lives of their family members.

The author is the region’s most celebrated columnist