In 1931, there were 2.3 million cars on Britain’s roads, and the number of deaths in motoring accidents reached 7,000. Statistically, that equated to a death toll, relative to the number of vehicles, of 0.3 per cent. In 2006, there were 33 million cars on the roads yet only 3.150 fatal accidents, or 0.0098 per cent of all motorists.

This vast, almost exponential, improvement can be attributed to a number of things: speed limits, better roads, better tyres and brakes, stronger construction and so on. But it is the emergence of active safety devices that have arguably made the greatest contribution – at least in the last 25 years.

In the 1950s, Harry Ferguson was trying to find a UK manufacturer interested in making his so-called ‘safety car’. It had ABS, four-wheel drive, seat belts, a multi-function steering wheel and various other safety novelties. No one was interested – not Standard, not Jaguar, not Austin – and in the end he gave up, despite his car’s having received the seal of approval from no less a personage than the Duke of Edinburgh.

Yet, in time, all Ferguson’s safety features began to be adopted by British and European car-makers. At first it was only the most expensive cars that had, for example, ABS. And so it was with traction control, ESP, air bags and so on. In fact, everyone of the active safety devices that are now commonplace started out in life as expensive options on large-engined luxury cars. Only the rich could afford them, and in many cases it took years for the technology to ‘trickle down’ to the kind of cars most people can afford. But were it not for the early adopters who were prepared to shell out for these expensive new features much of the technology we take for granted might never have seen the light of day.

So next time you see a driver in a large, flash, gas-guzzling car try to remember that his expensive (and to some, offensive) motor car might well provide the means by which life-saving active safety technology will become affordable enough to one day save your life.