Back in the day, parents would throw the kids and the freshly sharpened lawn darts in the back of the station wagon, light up half a pack of Marlboro Reds between them, and if the smart-alecky kids had anything to say about it…BAM! Right in the kisser.
It’s almost as if they didn’t like us that much.
Seriously, I rode 12 hours back from Florida in a cab-over camper atop our family’s F150… in a hurricane. C’mon!
While seatbelts were invented in the mid 1800’s decades before the first automobile, drivers were slow to accept them even after the federal government mandated them to be included in all new vehicles sold.
Today, over 90% of all drivers use their seatbelts, 49 out of 50 states mandate their usage, and the NHTSA estimates that they save over 15,000 lives each and every year.Â
So buckle up, buttercup. November 14th is National Seatbelt Day, a chance to remind everyone how important they are and how far we’ve come.
New vehicle safety is about more than seatbelts these days
Thanks in part to the increased use of seatbelts, you’re twice as likely to survive an accident now as drivers were back then.
Seatbelts save lives, and so does new Ford technologies
Today’s new Fords are orders of magnitude safer than older models thanks to these incredible technological advances that would have seemed like something from Star Trek to those lawn dart-loving 1970s drivers.
360° cameras with split-view displays give drivers a continuous view of everything on the road wherever it is on the road. Blind spots are literally a thing of the past thanks to the cameras and Ford’s BLIS Blind spot information system. Cross Traffic Alert lets you know of any traffic coming out of nowhere as you back out of your driveway or crowded parking lots.Â
Auto high beam headlights automatically brighten when you need to see the road better and dim again to avoid blinding any oncoming traffic.
Ford’s lane-keeping system helps keep you sunny side up and between the lines. While it doesn’t actually drive the car for you, it will alert you when you start to drift out of your lane. If you keep drifting, your Ford will tell you it’s time to pull over for a cup of joe!
The Intelligent Adaptive Cruise Control keeps you at a safe distance behind the cars ahead of you even in stop-and-go traffic. Pre-Collision Assist With Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) will alert you to any obstacles on the road in front of you whether it’s a giant whitetail buck crossing the road, a mother pushing a stroller through the intersection against the light, or some schmo doing 15 below the speed limit in the left-hand lane. If you don’t hit the brakes when alerted to the danger, the car will stop itself.
It’s like magic.
The safest new trucks and SUVs for sale in Kansas City
That makes the new Fords at Gary Crossley Ford some of the safest vehicles ever driven on the American highway, but you don’t have to take our word for it.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety was founded in 1959 and each year the institute releases a full analysis of the safety of new vehicle models. The safest vehicles are then named IIHS Top Safety Picks for the year.
For 2022, 5 Ford SUVs and 2 truck models were included on the IIHS Top Safety Picks list
- 2022 Ford Escape
- 2022 Ford Bronco Sport
- 2022 Ford Edge
- 2022 Ford Explorer
- 2022 Ford Mustang Mach E
- 2022 Ford F150 Crew Cab
- 2022 Ford F150 Extended Cab
Experience The Crossley Difference
Look we want to keep you as safe as possible; you pay the bills around here at Gary Crossley Ford. Our business model is built 100% on repeat business, on building deep ongoing personal relationships with our customers in our community. In order for any of that to happen, you have to stay safe!
Come on by the dealership, and let us show you some of the newfangled new safety features. They are seriously game changers and life savers. Once you see how they can protect your family, you’ll never let them hit the road with just a seatbelt for safety again.
