Many can remember the resistance of the automotive manufactures to seatbelts and airbags. The general attitude was that safe drivers do not get into accidents. Safe drivers might have fewer accidents unless they unfortunately bought a car with defective components that the manufacturer acknowledged and recalled. Or they were rear-ended at a stoplight. Or a drunk driver struck them head on.
Many bad things can happen to safe drivers through no fault of their own.
Watching one Indianapolis racing car crash at 200 mph with the driver walking away should convince the public that safety is possible through design. Looking at the statistics for 1928, there were 23.4 deaths per 100,000 people for motor vehicle accidents. In 1995, there were 16.7 deaths per 100,000 people for motor vehicle accidents. The death rate has come down through engineering, highway design, and plaintiff litigation. One aspect of automotive safety is rollover.