This is Mario Hurtado, Head of Passive Safety for SEAT, the man responsible for making the Spanish firm's cars ever safer - inside and out - for the past 26 years. He is enormously proud of what he has achieved in that time. In every way, the motoring world is a much safer place than when Mario created his department - back in 1989 - and every new SEAT that leaves the factory these days does so with a EuroNCAP five star safety rating, the maximum award possible. Under Hurtardo's stewardship, SEAT has earned a reputation for producing cars that offer some of the highest levels of passenger safety although this is not what gives Mario his greatest satisfaction. "Our real achievements are the advances we have made in pedestrian safety," he explains, "using ever more advanced materials and new manufacturing techniques to produce cars that significantly reduce the risk of serious injury to those on foot. Behind the front bumper and bonnet - for example - is a very carefully-designed energy-absorption zone, comprising a range of foams of differing densities, all of which help reduce the force of an impact."
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