Railings removed

It's the trickle down effect (electric windows, electric sunroof, air-con, blah blah) as equipment from the old top of the range motors appears in your everyday hatchback, plus increasing safety gear- side impact beams etc.

Ed is half right when he says that you are much more likely to be killed in an older car/when hit by one.

You are much safer now if you are in the car, not so much if it hits you- if you get hit by something twice the weight (of the old one) you are going to know about it rather more.

Not really true, the relative difference in weight between a person and any kind of car is so great that variations in the mass of the car don't really matter. A 800kg car travelling at 30mph will do just as much damage to a 80kg person as a 1600kg car, its not like the 800kg car will loose any significant proportion of its momentum when it hits you. To be honest I'd much rather be hit by a modern car as at least some though is put into designs to minimise pedestrian injury, plus they are not so pointy and hard.