US auto safety design-engineering laws and living without them

[sanatanadharma]

I am in the big city in Uruguay. Here I read regularly about traffic accidents on las rutas naccionales; these are mostly two lane roads.
Keeping in mind the population and the area of Uruguay are close to those of Arkansas, I read about so many head-on collisions.
Head-on accidents, night, daylight, clear sky, dry, straight road (as today). Of course, not only frontal; it is like too many don't use lights or brakes or judgement. There seems to be a cultural expectation that 'that won't be there when I arrive', so people (in cars and on foot) traverse their trajectories as though others do not exist (or will move). There is no room for error for the driver who expects the old man to clear the lane, not fall down in front of the car.
Even at slower speeds in the city, vehicles roll over a lot.

One thing, obvious to me, from the pictures of accidents singular or plural, major or minor, the cars imported to Uruguay would not meet the safety standard laws in the US. From what I see in pictures, cars here get damaged beyond my US auto-salvage yard experience. Cars here fall to pieces.

Trigger warning for three photos (below) of two cars from one accident today. The red car may have been a 60-70 euro Falcon/ Comet kind of car.
Three dead, so sad.

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Looks like designed by pinata manufacturers.

But, hey, we don't need no stinkin' regulations !