Airbags:
 Air bags
are designed to keep your head, neck, and chest from slamming
into the dash, steering wheel, or windshield in a front-end
crash. Air bags are fabric bags that are filled quickly
with a gas to provide supplemental protection for vehicle
passengers during some collisions. Typically, air bags are
designed to deploy in crashes that are equivalent to a vehicle
crashing into a solid wall at 8 to 14 miles per hour. Air
bags are most effective in protecting vehicle occupants
who are properly belted. One or more sensors detect intensity
and direction of vehicle deceleration during a collision.
The sensor sends an electric signal to start a chemical
reaction that inflates the air bag with harmless nitrogen
gas. Air bags have vents, so they deflate immediately after
cushioning you. If there is sufficient change in velocity
in the direction of protection (frontal or lateral), appropriate
air bags are deployed. On impact, air bag systems sense
the crash, inflate, and then deflate all in the blink of
an eye. They cannot smother you, and they don't restrict
your movement. The "smoke" you may have seen in a vehicle
after an air bag demonstration is the nontoxic starch or
talc that is used to lubricate the air bag.
The
Purpose of Airbags
Airbags
are designed for frontal impact crashes, the kind of crashes
which account for more than half of all passenger vehicle
occupant deaths. airbags are designed to limit head and
chest injuries. But they only supplement safety belts, they
do not replace them.
Number
of Motor Vehicles Equipped With Airbags
According to the Insurance Institute
for Highway Safety, over 81 million (40.7%) of the 200 million
cars and light trucks on U.S. roads have driver airbags.
Nearly 53 million (26.5%) of these also have passenger airbags.
Another one million new vehicles are being sold each month.
By law, beginning with model year 1998, all new passenger
cars are required to have driver and passenger airbags and
safety belts. Light trucks will be subject to the same requirement
beginning with the 1999 model year.
Pros
for Air Bags
 Air Bags have
saved many lives and prevented many injuries in motor vehicle
crashes
when combined with lap/shoulder safety belts. Typically,
these are very minor in comparison to the injuries that
would have occurred if the vehicle were not equipped with
an air bag.
NHTSA (National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration) had identified five
fatalities associated with air bag deployments in crashes
of low or moderate severity. Cases like these are so rare
that they're studied in detail to determine why the restraints
didn't prevent the fatal injuries.
Airbags save lives, an estimated 842
lives in 1997 alone. The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration estimates that the combination of an airbag
in addition to a lap and shoulder belt reduces the risk
of serious head injury by 75 percent, compared with a 38
percent reduction for belts alone.
When all passenger
vehicles are equipped with air bags, it is expected that
more than 3,000 lives will be saved each year. (NHTSA)
Driver air
bags reduce deaths in frontal crashes by 26 percent for
drivers wearing safety belts and 32 percent for unbelted
drivers. Passenger air bags reduce deaths in frontal crashes
by 14 percent for passengers wearing safety belts and 23
percent for unbelted passengers. (NHTSA)
The
Risks of Airbags
During pre-crash braking, an unrestrained passenger may
be thrown against the dashboard area, in immediate proximity
to an airbag. Since airbags inflate in less than 1/25th
of a second, faster than the blink of an eye, drivers and
passengers who are unrestrained or are wearing only the
lap portion of their safety belt can receive serious or
even fatal injuries from deploying airbags.
Occupants who are positioned
too close to an air bag when it begins to deploy are at
risk of serious injury. Since 1990, 149 deaths have been
attributed to air bags deploying in low-speed crashes. (NHTSA)
The deaths have included 68 children between ages 1 and
11, and 18 infants. (NHTSA) Of the 68 children killed, 54
are believed to have been unbuckled. (IIHS)
Most air bag deaths have occurred when adults or children
are not properly using safety belts or correctly placed
in a child safety seat. Others are at risk due to positioning
- such as drivers who are less than ten inches from the
steering wheel and infants who are placed in rear-facing
child safety seats near a passenger air bag. (NHTSA) .
Danger
of Air Bags
You
have just had a car accident, which causes your air bag
to deploy. You unbuckle your seatbelt and get out of your
car only to find just minor damage to both cars. The speed
at the time of the impact may have been as little as 10
mph. As if the pain from the contact with the air bag was
not enough, now the air bag is going to cost you somewhere
between $400 and $1200 to replace. And that is just for
the bag; in many cases most of the dash must also be replaced.
Other dangers of air bags are
small canister of sodium azide that releases nitrogen gas
and sodium hydroxide dust. This product is both flammable
and toxic. Nitrogen, which comprises 78 percent of the air
we breathe, is the gas that inflates air bags. The solid
chemical, sodium azide, generates the nitrogen gas by combustion.
Sodium azide is in the same class of chemicals as insecticides
and is toxic if ingested, but car occupants won't come into
contact with the chemical. This chemical reaction causes
the air bag to inflate with over 1000 pounds of pressure.
During this inflation, the canister heats up to about 300
degrees of temperature. To aid in a smooth release, the
air bag is coated with either talc or cornstarch. Once the
sensors are tripped, the air bag is triggered in about .05
of a second. The air bag then takes only another .1 of a
second more to fully inflate. The next half-second is spent
deflating the air bag. At this point you will need to consider
the size of the bag. It is slightly larger around than your
steering wheel, and will extend back about nine inches to
a foot. If your hands are on the steering wheel when it
deploys they will probably be knocked off. Consider what
may be between you and your air bag, like a cup of hot coffee,
your hands, or your glasses. This will be smashed into your
body and/or your face. Children and air bags do not mix.
Air bags could seriously injure or kill children who are
sitting in the front seat.
Immediate
Solutions
Infants should NEVER ride in the front seat of a
vehicle with a passenger airbag. Children ages 12 and under
should always be properly restrained in a child safety seat
or safety belt and ride in the back seat. Even if there
isn't a passenger airbag in the motor vehicle, the safest
place for infants and children is properly secured and buckled
up in the back seat.
Safety belts, both lap and shoulder, should be used with
airbags. Safety belt use, currently at 69 percent in the
United States, needs to increase. According to the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration: From 1975 through
1997, an estimated 100,998 lives were saved by safety belts.
In 1997 alone, 10,750 were saved by safety belts.
Side Impact Air Bags and "Head-Protection
System"- Newest Feature
 Most
new vehicles have come out with side impact air bags as
their latest safety feature. Side impact air bags are a
great option, slightly smaller than conventional front air
bags and deploy much faster. Check to see if the car you
are interested in carries these as a standard feature. Remember
that you will most likely receive a discount on your auto
insurance with these items as well.
BMW was the first auto maker to offer a "head-protection
system" standard in its 1998 5-Series and 7-Series cars
made for the United States. Mercedes-Benz and Volvo have
similar systems.
Changes Made to Air Bags-
Automakers have already incorporated many design changes
into their air bag systems. These include repositioning
the vents to direct escaping nitrogen gas away from driver's
hands and arms, diminishing the potential for minor burns
during deflation. Plus, the shape of the deployed air
bag has been modified to avert abrasions, and some deployment
threshold speeds have been adjusted upward to prevent
inflation at too low a speed. Air bag design is expected
to continue evolving as technology improves and experience
is gained from crashes.
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