One of the first automobile trials occurred in the year 1770, it involved a 3-wheeled, steam propelled carriage as constructed by French engineer, Nicolas Cugnot. During it's first test run it was involved in an accident. This has led eventually to the many vehicles we see today and the safety features designed for them.
             Crumple zones or crush zones at the front and the rear of the car and serve to help absorb the shock of impact in a car crash. They do this by bending and crumpling up, as the name suggests, effectively absorbing some of the crash energy, and dissipating the effect of the crash on its occupants in the safety cage of the vehicle. The crushing of the front or rear of the car during impact increases the length of the deceleration allowing the passenger to experience less extreme forces than if they had a more abrupt halt.
             The collapsible steering column is an innovation that helps prevent driver injury, (e.g. injuries such as the steering column driving the wheel up into the face or upper body of the driver, even with the airbag this can be unfortunate, as it may be more difficult to get them out of the wreck.)
             In most collapsible steering columns part of the steering column is solid and part is hollow (both fairly simple steel tubes), the solid part fit's into the hollow part, upon impact the solid part is pushed into the hollow part reducing the length of the column, thereby also reducing the injuries to the driver, (driver-commonly known as the nut behind the wheel). Another type of collapsible steering column is built like a concertina, designed to fold up on impact. Some steering columns (the first type- 'sliding') have a nylon pin that keeps them together under normal conditions, but sheers off during impact.
             Bumpers on the front of cars are designed to prevent minor aesthetic damage to the vehicle in low speed collisions, by absorbing crash energy while not inflicting to great a ...