Seat Belts and Air Bags

The first federal study of automobile air bags in actual traffic accidents has found that air bags used in conjunction with seat belts are far more effective than seat belts alone. Air bags reduce the risk of death in head-on collisions by 26%% and in all serious accidents by 13%%. Contrasting earlier findings that did not involve actual road conditions, the study showed that air bags protected occupants in ways that seat belts alone, did not. The air bag spread out the violent impact of a crash and kept occupants from smashing against the steering wheel, dashboard or windshield. Having an air bag and wearing an effective seat belt offers the best protection of all. Not only are you protected from frontal crashes by the air bag -- you are also protected by the seat belt in all other types of crashes. Studies show that 60%% of the people killed or injured in automobile accidents would have been saved from serious injury by safety belts. Unfortunately, many people choose not to wear them. With an "effective" safety belt (one that is worn and operating correctly), your body will stop, in a crash, before you have a chance to hit or go through the windshield and parts of your car. Seat belts are especially important in small cars, because your chances of being killed or badly hurt in a collision with a big car is eight times greater. Wearing your belt will greatly improve your chances of survival. In a Department of Transportation study made public on June 26, 1992, it was announced that air bags are far more effective than seat belts alone. Air bags can reduce the risk of death in a head-on collision by 26%% and in all serious accidents by 13%%. However, the DOT cautioned that air bags work this well ONLY when occupants were wearing a properly buckled seat belt over lap and shoulder. Other studies have shown that WITHOUT A BELT, AIR BAGS ARE OF SLIGHT BENEFIT. Air bags are only useful in frontal crashes, so it is not a good idea to skip your seat belt because you have an air bag. Air bags provide very effective protection in frontal crashes, inflating instantly to protect the driver or passenger that has a air bag. They spread the impact of the crash over the individual's head and chest and protect fragile body parts from the car's hard surfaces. More than 6 million cars (about 4%% of cars on the road today) have air bags, but the majority of them have air bags on the driver's side only. Federal officials estimate that air bags have inflated in more than 57,000 accidents since they were introduced, six years prior to 1992, and saved about 300 lives. This report came out in the middle of the most sweeping safety overhaul since the introduction of the seat belt almost 30 years ago. For the first time, most new cars sold in the US in 1992 have driver's side airbags. Within 6 years, federal law will require that every new car, light truck and van have air bags on both sides. The main concern of car safety research in the last few years has been the development of passive safety design features, where the aim is to improve the "crash-worthiness" of vehicles. The fundamental aim of good passive safety design is to ensure that only tolerable loads are applied to a car occupant's body during a crash. This is done first by restraining the occupant within the passenger compartment by means of a seat belt or other device, so that chances of making contact with the interior parts of the car are reduced. Secondly, when contacts cannot be avoided, the structures which are likely to be hit by the occupants must be designed to collapse and cushion them. It is important for the designers to have some knowledge of the forces that the human body can withstand, but as yet this branch of biomechanics has not been fully researched. Work is done at low impact energy levels using volunteers, but for high speed crashes it is necessary to use dummies. The relationship between dummy performance and that of a real person in a crash is complex, and it may be that these differences are very considerable. To reduce this problem, some work is currently being done using human cadavers. In spite of the difficulties in this area, many basic improvements have been introduced into cars in recent years. These include anti-burst door latches, safety glass, energy-absorbing steering wheels and columns, head restraints and various seat belt systems. The benefits of the three-point seat belts have been firmly established: over 50%% of fatal and serious injuries to car occupants would be avoided if all occupants wore their seat belts. Most states now have a law that both passengers and driver must have seat belts buckled while in motion. Those states which do not enforce a seat belt law for all passengers have an effective law for children under five years of age to be strapped in.