After considerable thought about the three stages of a crash, it seems to me that anyone who's really serious about their safety and security should buy only a properly-equipped vehicle from General Motors.
That's because GM is the only company currently putting OnStar service in many of its cars, trucks and minivans, which provides them with the best crash notification and vehicle-location system in the world. The safety and security advantages of this are huge, but largely unappreciated.
This sounds like a flagrant promotion of OnStar and GM, and indeed it is, since this is the only such service that's widely available that's able to save your life. I'd be as enthusiastic if a similar system were sold by Ford or Toyota or any other big volume company, but it isn't and it won't be anytime soon and you need to consider this for your own and your family's sake now.
OnStar is better at getting aid to you quickly and precisely in more places in North America than the few other services that are available commercially from other car companies or from aftermarket suppliers. It's also vastly superior to any cell phone service you can get.
But before we get too deeply into that, let's step back and consider those three stages of a crash and how important and how neglected the third stage is.
The first stage is prevention, which includes the need for anti-lock brakes, well-maintained tires, dynamic stability control, proper driving techniques, and a whole bunch of other things.
The second stage is vehicle performance, and except for making sure your seatbelts are done up this is pretty much inherent in the car's design and is somewhat reflected in those crash test ratings that companies love to promote.