This is part of
our six part Toyota in Action series.
See our previous articles on operations, community, and the people
of Toyota.
Safety is generally one of the biggest concerns of car
buyers when they are considering buying a new automobile. Studies have shown
that fewer people are dying in car collisions and the biggest reason is because
cars are built smarter and safer. Toyota is dedicated not just to building
safer cars, but also educating teens and parents about safer driving and
investing in the future of safety technology.
Of course, when people think of automobile safety, they
think of safe cars. Here are some of the highlights from Toyota’s automobiles:
- 100% of new Toyotas are equipped with the new Star Safety System and Smartshop Brake Override Technology, the first full-line manufacturer to do so.
- There are six advanced safety features in the Star Safety System: Vehicle Stability Control, Traction Control, Anti-Lock Brake System, Electronic Brake-Force Distribution, Brake Assist, and Smart Stop Technology.
- Toyota invests $1 million per hour into research and development to create safer cars
While many automakers, including Toyota, tout great safety
measures that prevent injury when a collision occurs, Toyota also invests in
programs that prevent collisions and serious injuries, including teen driving
programs like the Toyota
Driving Expectations (TDE) and Toyota
Teen Driver (TTD). Toyota knows that getting a driver’s license is an
exciting rite of passage for teens, but the first year of driving is also the
most dangerous. Parents want their children to be safe, so in addition to these
teen driving programs, Toyota has listed a few tips to help parents with
teen-driver safety:
- Be the driver you want your child to be. Parents are the first and best driving instructors, role models who lead by example.
- Insist that your teen always wear a seat belt. Peer pressure or image consciousness must never take a backseat to safety.
- Educate your teen to avoid distractions and limit all secondary activity – which includes not just texting and cell phone use but eating while driving, bringing pets into the vehicle, and other outside elements that might interfere with keeping one’s eyes on the road.
- Restrict teen passengers, whether friends or relatives. For every additional teen passenger in the car, chances increase for the creation of distractions that could lead to accidents.
5.
Set expectations with your teen for safe
driving by developing together a “driving contract” that outlines expected
behaviors, consequences, and rewards. For an example of what such an agreement
might look like, visit http://toyotateendriver.discoveryeducation.com/parents.cfm#mta.
In addition to teen safety
programs, Toyota has also teamed up with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and
Medical Center to create a child restraint education program called Buckle Up
For Life. The founding director of Trauma Services at the hospital noticed a
disturbing trend: that African-American and Hispanic children were three to
four times more likely to suffer serious injury or death in an automobile
collision. One of these children was Reyna Hernandez who had to re-learn to walk
after being thrown from a car because she was not wearing a seat belt. Reyna
overcame her injuries and is now a doctor supporting Buckle Up For Life. Watch
this video on Reyna’s experience and Buckle Up For Life:
Three out of four car seats are installed incorrectly;
Toyota thinks that is too many. Toyota cares about the future of all children
and believes that all children should ride safely. Buckle Up For Life is
focused on educating parents and guardians in African-American and Hispanic
communities about the importance of properly using and installing car seats and
other child safety technology.
To Toyota, safety isn’t just about making its own cars safer;
the goal of Toyota is to improve automotive safety as a whole. As a result,
Toyota invested $50 million to launch the Collaborative Safety Research Center
that is “devoted to spurring the advancement of automotive safety in North
America based on the three pillars of collaborative research, accident data
analysis, and outreach…” Safety information discovered at the CSRC is available
to the entire auto industry.
“By partnering with leading North American universities,
hospitals, research institutions, federal agencies, and other organizations,
CSRC is working to reduce traffic fatalities and injuries on America’s roads by
better understanding the complex dynamics between vehicle, driver, and traffic
environment. The Center's current focus is on protecting children, teens and
seniors — the three most vulnerable groups on the road. Together with our
ever-growing team of partners, including our Charter
Partners at The University of Michigan, Virginia Tech, and The Children’s
Hospital of Philadelphia, we're examining ways to reduce driver distraction,
studying the effectiveness of an electronic coaching and monitoring system for
teen drivers, and creating a national crash surveillance system focused on
child occupants of vehicles-- with more programs and partners to come.”
So whether it is behind the scenes in research and education
or utilizing Toyotas six-point Star Safety System into all new automobiles, you
know that Toyota is dedicated to keeping their drivers and passengers, and all
drivers and passengers, safer.
For more information about Toyota’s dedication to safety, go
to www.ToyotainAction.com or www.toyota.com/safety.
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