Car crashes are still extremely deadly—32,719 Americans died in car accidents in 2013, or almost 90 people a day. But the number of people dying in car crashes—particularly when expressed as how many people per 100,000 die in an auto accident—has essentially steadily declined since the early 1970s.

MinutePhysics explains why this is, using, of course, physics. Gasoline, when burned in cars, creates tremendous amounts of kinetic energy. That can either be dispersed by hitting the brakes, or the car hitting something. If the car hits something, the ideal situation is for this energy to dissipate as slowly as possible—sudden stops being unkind to the soft bunch of meat that is the human body.

Thus, the modern idea of "crumple zones" on cars. Crumple zones more allow the car to decelerate more slowly, and to spread the energy of the car in motion around to other structural components of the car. This, combined with rigid-body safety cells for the passengers, allows kinetic energy to go other places besides the human driver and passengers.

For an example of the efficacy of the crumple zone: watch this crash test of 2009 Chevy Malibu hitting a 1959 Chevy Bel Air head on—the more modern car makes it out relatively unscathed, while the hypothetical passengers of the Bel Air would be very much not okay.

Still confused? Watch the video above and get all the numbers—fast.

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