Once it might have been part of the problem in an accident situation, but now it's part of the solution. What are we talking about? Just the steering column and what it does in an accident situation.
Ford's answer is a bit of a mouthful, the Advanced Horizontal Stroking Steering Column, or AHSSC, and the company claims it's an industry first. The system is fitted not just to the new Focus, but also the Mazda3 and the Volvo S40 and V50, Mazda and Volvo being part of the bigger Ford empire. We can expect to see it fitted to other Ford, Mazda and Volvo models in the future.
The AHSSC was actually developed at Volvo's new safety centre in Gothenburg and then taken over by Ford for wider application in its C segment cars. Manufacturing is done by Krupp and, according to Gunnar Herrmann who is the Ford of Europe C car boss, "it's quite complex to build and quite expensive, compared to the conventional steering column".
Essentially, the Stroking Steering Column which is energy absorbing, adjusts to the impact direction that is going to be faced by the driver and that means more widespread knee protection. Toyota, it will be recalled, fitted a knee airbag to the steering column of its latest Avensis, and it too claimed an industry first. But Gunnar Herrmann insisted that their system was far more comprehensive in its overall protection of the whole knee and leg area.
One disadvantage is that more space is required in the driver's leg area, because AHSSC is bulkier and Ford people admit that there could be problems accommodating it in smaller cars like the Fiesta supermini.
We heard about it and other safety developments at Ford's safety centre, close to its Cologne manufacturing base. Crash testing is still a major item on the agenda, in spite of the virtual reality that can be achieved through computerised screen impacts.
Around 150 cars are crashed at Cologne every year, while a further 50 are "put down" at the Volvo safety centre in Gothenburg. The crashes are created to simulate Euro NCAP tests, the results of which are now Holy Grail for all car manufacturers.
Ford's German accident research data shows that only 20 per cent of all car impacts are rear impacts. Not surprisingly, however, neck injuries are the most common of all injuries in these rear accidents.
It's a litigious area too, and Ford's accident analyst, Frank Heitplatz, told us that it was almost impossible to determine the genuineness of the 32 per cent of front seat occupants who received neck injuries such as whiplash. Whiplash amazingly accounts for three-quarters of all insurance payouts for personal injuries in Britain. It can't be very much different here.