Pickup Truck

If we look in to the history of the auto mobile industry we realize that when it comes to safety features and innovations, trucks have been a little under privileged.

All new and innovative safety features were always installed in cars. Most of the compact pickup trucks have a very unenviable safety record.

The absence of seat belts and air bags made the trucks very unsafe resulting in greater number of fatal injuries in accident that involved a pickup truck.

Thankfully that’s not the case in today’s modern trucks. The modern trucks come installed with all the safety features that are possibly available in the auto mobile industry and are specially designed for the need of a truck.

In this article we take a in-depth look at all the safety feature present in today’s trucks.

• Vehicle Stability Control

As we all know that trucks a much higher and heavier as compared to a car, therefore it’s very important for them to be stable at high speeds, and at the time when brakes are applied. All present day trucks come with their own vehicle stability control (VSC) designs. Different types and methods are used by different manufacturers, but they all monitor the truck’s movements and the G-forces encountered during a drive. Whenever a stability control system detects abnormal conditions and movements, it immediately adjusts the throttle response and break pressure at each wheel and helps in maintaining and regaining vehicle control.

• Safety Cage

Whenever there is an accident in which the vehicle hit head-on or rolls over, a great amount of damage is sustained by the passenger cabin. To protect and minimize the intensity the impact of a crash, truck manufacturers are building trucks with safety cages. It is a cocoon like cabin structure that resembles a roll-cage. These encapsulated cabins provide better safety to all passengers during a crash. All trucks have crush zones that work hand in hand with the safety cage, by absorbing maximum amount of impact energy before it reaches the safety cage.

• Side Impact Safety

Side impact at the time of an accident is considered extremely fatal by some safety experts. Accidents involving a side impacts are more common then we think. To reduce the risk of fatal injuries truck manufacturers have equipped all modern trucks with side curtain type airbags.

These are mounted along the interior’s roof line above the doors. In case of a side impact these curtain airbags drop down to protest possible injuries to your head and spine. Some trucks come with a on/off switch to ensure that airbags don’t deploy when a vehicle is driven off-road.

In addition to the side curtain airbags, some manufacturers also offer airbags that are mounted on side of the seats to add even superior side impact protection.

• Trailer Sway Control

As an addition to the Vehicle Stability Control, some manufacturers are also offering the Trailer Sway Control. If the trailer begins to sway to an extent where it starts to move the back of the truck side to side, the trailer sway control kicks in and adjusts the breaking and the throttle to help stabilize the vehicle.

• Improved Seat Belts

Seat belts are responsible for saving millions of lives over the years. Seat belts have evolved over the years. The older seat belts were anchored to the body of the vehicle. These days some very innovative seat belt system available in the automobile industry. Belt systems that have pre-tensioners that tightens to remove slack in case of a crash, reducing the rough impact of the belt on the body. Some manufacturers even have seat belt systems with pre-tensioners that ease off as the crash impact progresses. All the trucks come with shoulder belts for outboard positions.

No matter how good the safety features might be, it’s always wise to drive safe.