So, Do airbags (not the suspension!) really save lives?

[Deuce Rails]

I'm just finishing Lee Iacocca's excellent 1984 autobiography.

Although the book was written at the absolute high point of the man's career, the content hasn't really aged.

One section that really is different deals with airbags vs. required seat belts. Iacocca was dead against airbags. And he was wholeheartedly for laws requiring seatbelts.

So his book made me wonder: do airbags really save lives?

Is anyone familiar with the data? At the same time that airbags (or "passive restraints" like the buzzing mouse-like seatbelt mount) were made mandatory, so were seatbelts.

Can anyone look at the information, and confidently say that air bags have saved lives?

I'm just curious,

--Matt

[Nads]

I can say categorically if it wasn't for the airbags in the family Honda I would have suffered severe injuries when I was T-boned by some clowns. Yes I said clowns, as in Insane Clown Posse fans in full ICP regalia. I was minding my own business and I was only two blocks from home when BAM! These kids ran a stop light and hit me smack dab in the drivers front side.
I literally crawled outta the car on my hands and knees, outta shock and the explosive TNT smell in the car. I thought I'd broken my left hand where the bag deployed, but I didn't. The car was and is fucked.
I'm convinced the bag saved from serious injury, I always wear my seat belt anyway.

On top it all the fucking ICP show was cancelled anyway.
Luckily ICP fan's mom had good insurance but as you all know one hard hit renders a car screwed for life, even if it appears everything's OK.

[OGNC]

I laughed out loud when I read that you were T-boned by clowns! I am glad that you're okay and that you were able to walk away from the crash. But the visual image of a car full of clowns crashing into you was too funny...

[DrJ]

I have a wire frame holding two round pieces of glass in front of my face. I figure if an air bag hits me in the face I will probably be brutally blinded
I hate the fuckers.
I think they should put a five point harness in all NEW cars and have it interlock the ignition.
Oh, that crotch strap would fuck with lady's skirts, we can't have that....
I put seat belts in all my cars and I make peple wear them or walk.
I don't like hosing blood off or fixing dents in my dash, but I think the fucking governmnent should butt out with their seat belt laws on cars already on the road.

[daddylama]

I had one go off on me, while servicing the column in an MR2 (used to be a toyota mechanic a looong time ago). that just plain sucked ass.
Few years later i was in a MILD collision... 'bag went off, jacked up my inner arm, my cheeck, cut my lip... my (at the time) girlfriend's glasses were broken, and it broke her nose.

Any new cars ive owned since then, ive removed the airbags. I'll go ahead and pay the slightly higher insurance premium because of it... i feel a lot safer.
My insurance company gave me a report saying that they lower fatalities in head on collisions by something like 13% (number be wrong... i have a way of forgetting everything). Didnt say anything about how much extra damage they cause in a 20mph collision, though.

i suppose the "second generation" airbags that are out now may be better... but i still dont dig having an explosive just inches in front of me.

Like DrJ said... put a 5 point in all new cars...
Im a big fan of seatbelts... even lap belts are better than nothing ('course not a LOT better)... but i dont dig airbags.
speaking of 5 point harnesses... you can get a ticket for wearing one in CA. I got one... tried to fight it in court... i lost. They didnt wanna hear that it releases in a second from one lever... they just said "they are not legal, son". Weird.

[james]

A freind hit a brick wall trying to miss a dumb kid on a bike..the bag definatly saved him. But, my cousin was in a pretty bad 30mph crash in a 97 neon, and the bag didn't even go off. The scariest part is what they can do to a kid. Basically they'll snap a small child's neck. I don't understand why they don't have keyed-on-off bags in cars like they do in trucks. My Mom has a new beetle, and it only seats 2 in back. Well, she has two grandkids in car seats, and a my seven year old, who has nowhere to sit because of the front bag. I like them, but I feel we should be able to easily turn them off.

[purple]

<font color="purple"> I'm short and when I t-boned a BMW it hurt when it hit me. It was a slow enough accident that I would have been fine without it. But it went off, and I only have 3-4 inches from my fat belly.

Because this gut punch was so hard on a light impact, I want to disconnect it. I won't let my mom drive the car either because she is so small she could be killed. She is 4'9" and uses pillows behind her when the seat is all the way forward. </font>

[Bondo Slinger]

I`m a collision repair tech and I see some pretty messed up cars. I`d have to say yes, they definetly save lives.

The new gen 2 air bags are much better then the origanals.
They aren`t so violent when they go off.

[ELpolacko]

Before starting my career building hotrods for a living I worked for a company called Aero Spec. We were sub-contractors for TRW Saftey Systems, in otherwords we built the machines that built SRS (airbags).

The whole concept of modern airbags was developed by a company called Talley Defense Systems. They made ejection seats for air craft. Using the same technology to lanch a wayward piolot away from a damaged aircraft was used to inflate a rubberized canvas "bag" as a supliment to existing seat belt technology. Your common every day airbag is inflated using what ammounts to a blasting cap inside a sodium azide coated, potassium nitrate pill or ring depending on type.

Talley was working on a multi stage release system that measured the velocity of the vehicle and weight of the passenger. But the saftey nazis in the government techincaly nullifed the patent and gave it to TRW which consequently opened a manufacturing plant directly next door. Someone in the government determined that the multi-stage stuff was unnecesary and that an "average" inflation rate would suffice.

Skip ahead a few years, there are some major problems. People who refuse to wear seat belts will get hurt by an air bag because their body movement becomes unpredictable in a high speed collision. People who sit too close to the steering wheel can get crushed and/or burned by the hot gasses used to inflate the bag. Now here comes more government regs, de-powered bags and some seatbelt interlocks are starting to show up. There is even activty to resurect the multi-stage release system again.

Yes, airbags do save lives. Seatbelts save even more. It is getting harder to find cases where an airbag caused more injury than it saved due to better designs from the automobile manufacturers. Technology is a good thing even though it takes a back seat around here.

[whitewallslick]

We just bought a 2003 Civic 2dr &amp; the dealership said we could sign a waiver from the Ohio BMV to get the passenger air bag shut off to allow a car seat up front. WWS

[ QUOTE ]
I like them, but I feel we should be able to easily turn them off.

[/ QUOTE ]

[blueskies]

crash test vid (http://212.112.161.95/00862/ovrigt/0206/m0ov020625minicooper.mov)

[skipperman]

Wife and I are comin home from a wedding---(1 AM ---STONE SOBER !)...unfamiliar road--hopped a curb at 35 mph...problem was there was a drainage ditch(3 feet deep)just past the curb......both bags popped...wife looked like she did 3 rounds with mike tyson ( I didn't let her outta' the house for a few weeks 'cause she looked like I BEAT her...)...MAJOR black and blues on some very soft body parts........ I broke my nose,pretty good cut on the arm that was layin on the steering wheel,we BOTH had burns and scabs from the impact....them things hurt !!! Still...I believe if it were a head on type of thing they woulda' saved our lives............. one word ---DO NOT --EVER--Put a child in front of one O' them things !!! (yes,we had the seatbelts on.)

Jersey Skip