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Show New trend shows seat belts Car ads send mixed messages By DENNIS HINKAMP It's refreshing to see commercials for cars that don't depict driving cliffside roads at 90 miles per hour or leaping rivers and crushing small trees. The new trend is showing children in seat belts and anti-lock brakes stopping cars on wet roads. There are still some mixed messages out there. Volvo hardly ever shows its cars doing anything but crashing.. .just to prove how safe they are? One minivan manufacturer touts driver-side air bags even though these vans are designed to carry a lot more people than just a driver. Despite these minor complaints, car marketing is generally gen-erally moving in a positive direction. As consumers, you should look for these safety safe-ty features when comparing new cars: Size: It doesn't matter how you try to manipulate manip-ulate it, bigger and heavier is safer. You can make the argument that it is the mixing of small and large cars that is the problem. However, it is unlikely that the situation will ever be any different. Even with the spread of smaller, more fuel efficient cars, we are always going to have larger trucks and mass transit vehicles mixing with smaller cars. Air Bags: Air bags are here to stay and it is only a matter of time before they start spreading to the passenger side of vehicles. Even the best safety belts allow enough slack that your head is vulnerable to hitting the steering wheel, dashboard or windshield in a head-on collision. Air bags act as a pillow between passengers and the auto's interior. Every major auto manufacturer manufac-turer has at least a couple 1992 models with air bags standard or as an option. Safety belts: You still need safety belts because air bags will only protect you from head-on collisions. Not all safety belts are created equal. There have been substantial advances ad-vances in seat belt technology in the last decade. There are several devices designed to reduce or eliminate the dangerous seat belt slack that can reduce seat belt effectiveness during crashes. Ask about "automatic belt tensioners ' 'webbing grabbers" and "dual locking belts' All of these devices help ensure that you get maximum protection out of your seat belts. Still, less than half of all Utahns choose to wear seat belts and less than half the Utah legislature wants to put any teeth into the Utah seat belt law. Anti-lock brakes: Next to air bags, anti-lock brakes are the biggest new selling point on new cars. No matter how good a driver you are ajfci even if you can remember to steer into a skid.C' ti-lock brakes are better. They greatly reduce lie chance of skidding out of control. With few exceptions ex-ceptions they are available on all four wheels. There are a few 1992 models with rear wheel only anti-lock brakes. Similar to air bags, all major auto manufacturers have anti-lock brakes available on at least some of their 1992 models. The best source of information on auto safety statistics is the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 1005 N. Glebe Rd., Arlington, VA 22201. i |