Safety Features of Early Cars

The Need for Safety

When automobiles were introduced in the late 19th century, the public was slow to trust them as a safe alternative to carriages, horses or streetcars. In 1899 the first traffic death was recorded when a pedestrian in New York City was hit by an electric taxi. When cars went into mass production in the 1920s, safety was a common concern, and cars were sometimes marketed in a way that drew attention to their safety credentials. By 1910, traffic deaths were occurring 25 times as often as they do today when adjusted for the number of drivers on the road.

While much of an early car's safety equipment was little more than simple systems designed to be more reliable, such as lug nuts that were unlikely to come unthreaded as a car drove along, other equipment was more in line with what we think of as safety features today. Flexible metal bumpers were common on early cars, able to absorb impact and protect vehicle occupants. Bumpers also made pedestrians safer as they would feel less force in the event of being hit by a moving car.

Some early cars, such as Ford's Model T, were sold without doors. For certain model years, or for the more up-market editions of the car, doors were included. Besides offering privacy and a more finished look, doors were also a major safety feature, protecting occupants from road debris, the elements and shielding them in the case of a side impact crash. Gradually stronger, reinforced doors became standard in most cars. Safety glass, which is resistant to shattering, was popularized in the 1910s for military and other specialty applications. It was offered on cars beginning in the 1920s.

As much danger as the drivers of early cars may have been in, pedestrians fared even worse. In the early 1900s, John O'Leary invented a device known as the O'Leary Fender. It used a flexible wire frame that would bend when it came into contact with a pedestrian. The product was marketed as something that would make certain types of injury a thing of the past, but ineffective testing led the O'Leary Fender to disappear instead.

As early as 1913, some cars were sold with tool kits that contained important equipment for preventing or repairing damage. The 1939 Model T could be ordered with a kit that included a tire pump and jack, as well as a ruler-like stick for measuring the fuel level and work gloves. In 1929 Oscar J. Simler patented the first turn signal device, which included lights to indicate left turns, right turns and stopping. Before lights, reflectors were commonly used to make vehicles more visible.