Detroit’s Blind Spot

After three days of eco this and enviro that, all the green cars at the Detroit Auto Show have left me feeling a little green around the gills. Oh sure, energy independence, global warming and gas prices are all important, weighty issues. But the eco-car jumped the shark for me yesterday morning when GM car czar Bob Lutz--renowned in Motown for his quick wit and need for speed--put a room full of journalists to sleep explaining the science behind lithium-ion batteries and cellulosic ethanol. Walking out of that interview, I was nearly run down by a go-go-boot wearing ESPN correspondent zipping by on a Segway as she explained the futuristic features of the Saturn Flextreme plug-in electric hybrid. "You're in my shot," she said, swerving her Segway. "But it's OK, we're only rehearsing."

My near-collision got me thinking about another important story I heard nothing about at this auto show: safety. Green technology might save you a buck and even help save the planet, when automakers actually get it on the road. (Like that ESPN correspondent's segment, most of the green cars at the Detroit show are really just rehearsals.) But safety technology can save your life. Safety, though, lacks the buzz of an electric car like the gull-wing Dodge Zeo concept or the egg-shaped Chrysler ecoVoyager fuel-cell minivan (both are miles away from actually hitting the road). "Green is in right now," says Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "And safety is taking a back seat."

That priority system seems more about PR than the pressing needs on our highways. More than 42,000 people die on American roads every year. That's nearly 11 times the number of deaths U.S. forces have suffered in six years of fighting in Iraq. And like Iraq, car crashes claim a disproportionate number of young people. Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people under 25 in America. In 2006, 12,532 people under 25 died on American roads, according to federal statistics. That same year in Iraq, 819 U.S. forces died, according to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count. But despite our sad and staggering highway death toll, the problem can't seem to find a spotlight. "When you have 42,000 fatalities every year, certainly there's not enough being done," says Clarence Ditlow, a veteran safety watchdog and executive director of the Center for Auto Safety.

What's worse, the green trend is on a collision course with highway safety. Concern about our carbon footprint and $3 gas is putting small gas sippers into overdrive. Sales of the smallest cars on the market, like the Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit, jumped 33.7 percent last year. And coming next month is Daimler's Smart car on display in Detroit. It gets 60 miles per gallon and is so small you can park it nose first into a parallel-parking space. But imagine that tiny two-seater coming up against a Hummer in a crash. "It comes down to physics. If you're in a smaller vehicle out there, you're at greater risk," says Lund. "I'm concerned that people are going to put their families into small cars and more people will die trying to save money on gas."

Maybe all of this sounds like kind of a downer. And you're thinking, "I wouldn't talk about death at an auto show, either." But here's the thing, the safety-technology story is just as whiz-bang and techie as the enviro technology. And having sat through that lithium-ion lecture, I'm here to tell you the safety story is far more compelling.

Here are a few safety breakthroughs that carmakers could have spotlighted at the auto show: