Airbag Benefits, Injuries and Fatalities

Airbag Benefits, Injuries and Fatalities

Air bags supplement the safety belt by reducing the chance that the occupant's head and upper body will strike some part of the vehicle's interior. They also help reduce the risk of serious injury by distributing crash forces more evenly across the occupant's body. Airbags protect you by applying a restraining force to the body that is smaller than the force the body would experience if it hit the dashboard or steering wheel suddenly, and by spreading this force over a larger area.

Air bags involve the extremely rapid deployment of a large cushion. While air bags can protect a person under the right circumstances, they can also injure or kill. To protect occupants not wearing seat belts, U.S. air bag designs trigger much more quickly than air bags designed in other countries. As seat belt use in the U.S. climbed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, auto manufactures were able to adjust their designs. Today all air bag control units recognize if a belt is used and set the trigger time accordingly.

Newer air bags trigger at a lesser speed; nonetheless, passengers must remain at least 25 centimeters (10 in) from the panel from which frontal air bags deploy to avoid injury from the bag in a crash. While driving, a driver must be seated so that the center of their chest remains 25 centimeters (10 in) from the center of the steering wheel hub. The design of side air bags means occupants of a vehicle must not lean against the inside of the car window or doors, the pillars or place objects between themselves and the side of the vehicle. Despite many cars still featuring hooks on passenger assist grips, these can not be used when side thorax ,and in particular, curtain air bags are fitted.

In 1990, the first automotive fatality attributed to an air bag was reported, with deaths peaking in 1997 at 53 in the United States. TRW produced the first gas-inflated air bag in 1994, with sensors and low-inflation-force bags becoming common soon afterwards. Dual-depth air bags appeared on passenger cars in 2005. By that time, deaths related to air bags had declined, with no adults deaths and two child deaths attributed to airbags that year. Injuries remain fairly common in accidents with an air bag deployment.