Airbags Save Lives

Airbags were first introduced in the early '70s and have evolved a great deal since then, due to changing laws and ongoing statistics based on usage and safety data. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that a person, who uses their seatbelt in conjunction with an airbag, reduces their rate of serious injury by over 80%.

Joan Claybrook. Administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)
issued the first standards requiring passive restraints in vehicles in 1984. Some report that Airbags have been credited to reducing the risk of death from front collisions by 30 percent, and with saving over 10,000 lives as of January 2003.

Although airbags do save lives, they are still not perfect. Due to poor designs, cost cutting decisions and a lack of comprehensive standards; some airbags fail to adequately protect the occupants during an accident. Some airbags will fail to deploy during a collision, or in some cases, deploy at such force that they cause more of an injury than the actual accident. Young drivers and shorter adults are more prone to air bag injury, since they have difficulty in maintaining the recommended distance of 10 inches from the steering wheel. Having Pedal extenders installed in the vehicle can help in giving the driver an additional 2-3 inches from the airbag if it ever deployed. Public Citizen (citizen.org) has reported that inadequately designed airbags have resulted in the deaths of more than 200 people, including 129 children.

Airbags have been so successful in reducing serious injury, that most car owners expect this as standard equipment within every new car purchased. Most parents will not even consider putting their new driver into a car without airbags. When buying a used car, it is important to know that all cars manufactured after 1998 were required to have airbag systems. A visual inspection can quickly be done to identify whether or not an airbag system is installed. Driver side airbags are located within the steering wheel, while passenger airbags are usually located above the glove box.

Essentially, airbags consist of 3 main components; Crash Sensors, Inflator System and the inflatable Airbag.

Crash sensors, located in the front and rear areas of the car, as well as the passenger cabin, measure the force of impact of the accident and sends a signal to trigger the inflator unit. To minimize premature deployment, crash sensors are designed to engage if the car is going at least 12 miles per hour.

The inflator unit can deploy the inflatable airbag at speeds up to 100 miles an hour.

The final component is the fabric based Inflatable airbag. When the airbag is deployed, it is inflated immediately, (less than a blink of an eye) along with talcum powder or cornstarch for lubrication.

Small children in car seats are highly susceptible to injury if located in the front seat during an accident. It is highly recommended to re-locate children to the rear of the vehicle. If you have to have the car seat in the front passenger area, it is recommended that you disable the airbag deployment system to avoid injury.

Advances in technology are positively impacting airbag system designs by calculating the size, weight and seat placement of the occupant. Calculating this information, along with the severity of the crash, the system can inflate the airbag in various stages to minimize injury and still provide protection during the crash