Passive Safety Systems

Most of today's vehicles are equipped with high-tech safety devices to assist the driver and protect vehicle occupants. These safety systems can be categorized in active and passive devices.

The active systems, like ABS, ASR and other stability systems are designed to ensure optimal driveability and directional stability of the vehicle. These systems are therefore active before a potential crash to assist the driver as much as possible.

During the crash, the passive safety systems like airbags and seatbelt pretensioners are activated. These safety devices are called 'Supplemental Restraint Systems' (SRS) because of the supplemental protection effect in addition to the seatbelts that are already present. These systems are designed to protect the occupants during the crash. In this document these devices are described in detail.

Modern vehicles are equipped with numerous of these safety devices. Very often, as many as 10 airbags and 6 seatbelt pretensioners are installed in these vehicles. On top of that, convertibles can additionally be equipped with automatic rollover protection systems.

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