On January 13, 1962, comedian Ernie Kovacs died after crashing his Chevrolet Corvair into a telephone pole in Los Angeles. Safety advocate Ralph Nader used the Corvair as an example of how auto companies were designing cars for style and power, not safety. His 1965 book, Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile, led to the 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. This established federal car safety standards and required passenger seat belts.
