Why is a c++ reference considered safer than a pointer?

Question

When the c++ compiler generates very similar assembler code for a reference and pointer, why is using references preferred (and considered safer) compared to pointers?

Answer 1

A pointer is an independent variable that can be reassigned to point to another date item, unintialized memory, or just no where at all (NULL). A pointer can be incremented, decremented, subtracted from another pointer of the same type, etc. A reference is tied to an existing variable and is simply an alias for the variable name.