Top 3 safety features on a Toyota Fortuner

By Farzana Chaumoo

A list of some of the important safety features that can be found in the Toyota Fortuner.

 

1. Trailer-Sway Control (TSC)

It's likely at some point, you will use your Toyota Fortuner to haul something big. This is where the system assists you. Trailer Sway Control first detects any swaying, caused by high side winds or even a driver’s erratic steering, and then puts measures in place to control the situation and keep occupants and the trailer safe. The Toyota TSC has a two-step process whereby it detects the trailer sway before the driver does then automatically applies brake pressure to the individual trailer wheels. The system also eases the engine torque. This combination of actions helps to steady the trailer and the trailer cargo.

At the same time, TSC is working to bring the trailer under control, it is also alerting/communicating with the vehicles behind the trailer through the brake lights. The brake lights will come on in the natural essence of alerting vehicles behind it that it is slowing down.

 

2. Underlying Safety

In an emergency, there are up to seven airbags that can be found in the Toyota Fortuner. There's a driver airbag, front passenger, curtain shield, driver-knee and side airbags that will activate depending on the situation. 

Inside the cabin, ISOFIX seat belts ensure that the point of tension is relative to the impact. There's also the Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) and Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD) which act to stabilise the vehicle.

To protect your most precious cargo, Child Lock ensures that there are absolutely no mishaps with back-seat, passenger door safety. On all models, anti-theft systems operate silently in the background. The anti-theft system features include an independently powered siren, an advanced immobiliser, as well as an ultrasonic glass-breaking and intrusion sensor.

 

3. Vehicle-Stability Control (VSC)

When in transit, Vehicle-Stability Control (VSC) is there to minimise the chance that any wheels slip sideways when cornering or sudden steering. When the vehicle senses a loss of traction or a slip, braking is automatically applied to all four individual wheels and engine power is reduced to help secure the safety of the vehicle. 

For example, if the steering wheel refuses to turn from over-speeding (under-steering), the vehicle will take control to steer toward the inner curve. Also, when the vehicle begins to spin from abrupt steering handling (over-steering), the vehicle will take control to steer toward the outer curve. VSC is designed to help the driver maintain vehicle control, and is not a substitute for safe driving practices. Also, the system will not be able to surpass the performance of the quality of the tyres.

"According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) report, vehicles equipped with VSC compared to those without can effectively reduce single-vehicle accidents by 35% for automobiles and 67% for Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV)."

Loaded by Toyota Global, watch a video on Vehicle Stability Control (VSC)