Safety is that subset of mankind's evolving technological prowess which stretches the outside of the envelope when we do something stupid, or when Mother Nature gets a wild hair up her butt and whispers "pookie pookie." Rear view mirrors first appeared on racing cars. They were outlawed by our legislators for street legal cars because they lowered cops' expectation of revenue re traffic citations. The slaughter on our highways eventually argued the good idea into common use.
Seat belts first appeared in racing cars (after combat aircraft), and were also fought as an intrusion into privacy. Airbags have never been in racing cars or aircraft, and they were pushed hard by our government because
The two giant face-destroyer airbags have now been augmented by multiple "side impact" airbags. (Washington will never discover the rear seat where important people luxuriously snuggle while being driven by their chauffeur.)
As government seeks to increasingly separate us from the contents of our wallets, new Official truth emerges. The latest scam lowering gas mileage and increasing maintenance costs in the name of improved economy is the headlight which cannot be turned off during driving. "A car with its headlights on can be more easily seen among other cars in daylight." How is all cars with their headlights on any different from no cars with their headlights on? Each headlamp is some 500 watts. Driving with your headlights on costs you from 1.3 to 2.6 horsepower, and the gasoline that creates it. This is interesting, since the solution to a more visible car costs essentially nothing to install and exactly nothing to maintain. It also lights up the entire surface of the vehicle, not just a small fraction of its front.
3M Corporation, in its neverending quest for profits, discovered microscopic solid glass spheres smaller in diameter than a human hair were remarkable light retroreflectors when added to varnish and painted on a surface. (Microscopic hollow glass bubbles create a light absorptive surface.) Modern car finishes consist of a pigment layer optimized for color and corrosion resistance topped with a clear layer optimized for brilliance and physical survivability. It would be trivial and cheap to add a small percentage of glass microspheres to the pigment layer to create a car that controllably lights up in sunlight or headlights or any ambient light at all. A pound of glass microspheres would create a car that was brilliantly visible, yet otherwise unaltered. The one time cost would be about a dollar.
We know it works because it is the technology enabling reflective license plates. Reflective plates save lives by making cars more visible, especially at night. QED, and an Official BFD. Where is the tax enablement? How do you know safety is enacted unless it is a burden? Unelss it causes injuries and deaths?
Automobile child safety seats are mandated by law, and expensive. They must be replaced two or three times as the child grows out of each successive seat. That deploying airbags efficiently kill children strapped into such safety seats is now under Department of Transportation "study." Southern California children who ride bicycles are, by law, mandated to wear a safety helmet at a cost of perhaps $100/child. Nationwide that would be about $380,000,000 to prevent a putative dozen skull fractures annually, less broken necks caused by the force transmitted by the rigid helmet. Christopher Reeves might offer commentary.
Smoke detectors are wonderful devices. They provide a market for a byproduct of nuclear power reactor radioactive fission waste (hard gamma-emitting americium-241 in the ionization detector). They are multiply mandated by law in all habitations. They Officially save hundreds of lives each year at an aggregate cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. Untold millions of people launch into ballistic rage as they are set off by dinner cooking. You might ask yourself, "how is it that a robust stream of air is constantly flowing through my smoke detectors, yet the powerful alpha and gamma emitter Am-241 is not sufficiently encapsulated to contain its necessary radiation?" Smoke detectors disgorge good nuclear radiation. This is in contrast to radon in your air which is really, really bad at a natural level some tens of thousands of times lower. It requires a skilled bureaucrat to discern the difference. Either they do discern the difference or they are re-educated in Chornobyl.
Personal accountability and personal liability engender personal responsibility. People who pay for their own mistakes are superbly efficient at protecting themselves from the vicissitudes of life. When your well being becomes an Official act, you can be certain that it will cost you dearly and in every possible way. You will be protected to death.