AIR BAGS [ back to What's New ]
Air bags tucked into the steering wheel have saved lives in high speed front end collisions. However, they remain of no protective value against brain injury from head trauma in side impact, rear end or roll over crashes, or in frontal collisions when the occupant is out of position. They became a source of increased injury or even death to adult drivers not wearing their seatbelts and to seatbelted children under age 12 sitting in front. Litigation for extra injury (TBI, spinal cord damage or both) has been brought when the air bag failed to deploy as intended or deployed when not intended in low speed crashes. Deployment in low speed crashes can be highly injurious, because the occupant is not expecting anything, when the air bag hits him like a huge boxing glove at 180-200 mph. Apart from always wearing your seatbelt and making sure children under age 12 always sit in the rear, can you do anything else to reduce the risk of  air bag injury? The answer is yes. According to an article in the Jan. 2000 issue of Trial, you can select a car which has the following safety features: tailored gas flow bag inflators which equilibrate air bag inflation rate to the severity of the collision; use of cloth straps inside the air bag to tether it and restrain from moving too far rearward into the occupant; contouring the shape of the bag  to prevent excursion into your body during inflation; telescoping steering wheels; and less aggressive air bags deploying at 150 mph or less instead of 200 mph.