Car safety is extremely important. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 42,636 people died in car accident sin 2004. Driving a car can be dangerous, but proper car safety could have helped prevent at least some of these deaths.

Items of car safety:

Lights. Brake lights and turn signals and headlights are all safety features of your car... make sure that you use them, and make sure that none of your bulbs have burnt out.

Mirrors. Properly align your side mirrors and rear view mirror to help eliminate blind spots. Remember, though, that even with your mirrors properly aligned, you will still have blind spots, so be sure to check them before you change lanes or drive in reverse.

Seatbelts. Seatbelts keep you from being thrown forward and even from being ejected from your vehicle.

Bumpers. Bumpers were created to withstand a small collision without damaging the main body work of your vehicle.

Airbags. These days, there are not just front air bags, there are also side airbags and curtain airbags. All of these air bags protect people's heads in the event of a collision. Airbags can be dangerous to children, so be sure to read your owner's manual before placing a child in the front seat.

Anti-lock braking system (ABS). Anti-lock brakes can shorten your braking time by preventing the brakes from locking and causing you to lose traction while braking.

Four wheel drive. Wheel spin is less likely when the power is distributed to all four wheels.

Four wheel steering. This gives a driver faster and more accurate maneuvering ability at high speeds.

These are just a few items of car safety that are being added to most cars today. There are also less common forms of car safety (that are growing in popularity) like dynamic steering response (DSR), lane departure warning system (LDWS), directional headlights, inboard brakes, traction control (TCS), Electronic Stability Control (ESC), and other interesting and safe technology.

Of course, just because you have a car with side curtain air bags and four wheel drive and a lane departure warning system, it does not mean that you can drive completely carefree, thinking that your car will take care of you.

While advancements in car safety are making modern vehicles more and more safe, they are only safe when a safe driver is behind the wheel. Car safety starts with you, the driver.

Car safety tips for the driver:

Be completely sober!

Wear your seatbelt.

Do not talk on your cell phone while driving your car... the more attention you pay to your friend on the other line, the less attention are paying to the road, and vice versa. This is true regardelss of whether or not you have a hands-free phone! Your driving time is not the time to be multi-tasking.

Do not eat while driving. Do not read, put on make-up, or dress while driving, either!

Keep both hands on the wheel.

Follow the speed limit.

Drive slower in poor weather (or do not drive at all!)

Never tailgate. Be sure to always leave plenty of room between you and the car in front of your.

Think of escape routes. Make sure that you leave yourself enough room that you can change lanes quickly (without hitting anything) in case there is a problem (like a deer, another car not seeing you and changing lanes, etc.). Always have an outlet. Do not let other cars box you in.

Drive Defensively. Stay calm. Do not let other drivers anger you. If they cut you off, leave it at that. Make sure that your anger towards them does not cause you to cut someone else off!

If you are sleepy, do not drive.

Stay out of other people's blind spots.

Think of potential "problems." For instance, if there are young kids playing with a ball, be aware that they might chase it into the street.

Try not to drive much at night.

Perform regular maintenance on your vehicle!

There are many things that you can do to help maintain car safety. Sometimes an accident may be another driver's fault, but oftentimes even those accidents could have been avoided if you had done something differently (not to say that it is your fault if another car hits you!)

Car safety is important, so make sure that your car is as safe as possible and that you are, too!