Since 1998, the federal government has required that new automobiles be equipped with dual airbags for front-seat passengers. While airbags have been credited for saving thousands of lives since the 1990s, they have also been responsible for a number of deaths, especially children. Air bags can provide important protection, but they should not be used as a substitute for safety belts and proper restraining devices for young children.
History of Airbags
The first patents related to airbag technology were filed in 1953. In that year, American John W. Hetrick received a patent for what he called a "safety cushion assembly for automotive vehicles." During the same year, German inventor Walter Linderer also received a patent for an "inflatable cushion" to protect drivers in accidents.
Airbags were first installed in the 1973 Oldsmobile Toronado. In the following year, Buick, Cadillac and Oldsmobile introduced airbags on a number of their full-sized cars.
Airbags began to appear in Ford and Chrysler vehicles in the 1980s and by the 1990s they had become a highly touted safety feature for many cars. Since the late 1990s, all new cars in the United States have airbags for front seat passengers.
How Airbags Work
Airbags are designed to protect passengers during an accident by cushioning them from slamming into the front dashboard or the doors as they are thrown about in the car. In many accidents in cars without airbags, passengers are injured or killed when they are crushed against hard surfaces or impaled by sharp, pointed shards of glass. Airbags can prevent many of these injuries, as well as decrease the possibility of broken bones and whiplash.
Lives Saved by Airbags
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated that, as of the beginning of 2009, more than 28,000 lives were saved because of frontal airbags in cars. The vast majority, or 82 percent, were drivers. The rest were front seat passengers. Of those whose lives were saved, 60 percent were not wearing seat belts.
The NTHSA also estimated that using a seat belt along with frontal airbags reduces the risk of fatality in a head-on crash by 61 percent, compared with a 50-percent reduction in fatalities by using seat belts alone. Side airbags that include head protection reduced the risk of fatality by 37 percent in driver's side crashes. The risk to passengers in SUVs was reduced by 52 percent by head-protecting side airbags.
Airbag Fatalities
As of March 2009, the NHTSA estimated that since 1990, more than 290 deaths were caused by the deployment of frontal airbags during low-speed crashes. More than 90 percent of these fatalities were infants or children, many of whom were not wearing seat belts or any sort of safety restraint. During such crashes, drivers and passengers who were not wearing seat belts were thrown forward into the airbags, which also exerted their own force as they inflated.
Considerations
The design of airbags has been modified considerably since 1998. Frontal airbags in newer cars now deploy with less force than older models, which reduces the risk of injury in low-speed crashes. Additionally, guidelines have been developed which recommend that children should be placed in the back seat if possible, and young children and infants should be restrained in booster seats. Also, wearing seat belts increases the effectiveness of airbags in the event of a crash, and also lessens the risk of passengers being thrown against an airbag as it inflates.
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