I’m at or below the 5th percentile in height for adult females, with a small frame. I’m considering replacing my '04 Taurus. I would prefer not to get squished by an airbag. I sit as far back from the wheel as possible, but still there is a risk since the airbags are designed for people much, much bigger than I. The trouble is that I’m having a hard time deciphering the different airbag safety features, and most of them seem geared at protecting the passenger.
That would be me. So, car gurus, which one gives me the best odds? Volvo’s “collapible steering column” is promising, would that be at all helpful? Do any '09 models have an airbag that scales its reponse based on driver seat position? I always always always wear my seatbelt, so the ones that deploy with less force when the seatbelt is engaged are helpful too.
One option is to buy whatever car you want, and then get an off-switch for the airbag. You don’t say where you are, but assuming you’re in the US, you need to fill out this form and submit it to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Apparently this is a just formality: they never decline a properly filled-out form.
NHTSA will return a permission letter in about two weeks, and you can nominally take it to any dealership or mechanic and have them install a switch. I say “nominally” because I’ve heard that many shops (dealers or indies) will decline to do this work, presumably because of fear of liability issues.
If you have a problem finding a cooperative shop, you can get in touch with these people: Sensible Solutions, Inc.. They’ll come to your house and install a switch in your car in about an hour. They installed two switches on my car about six years ago, and I’m very pleased with the quality of the work and the hardware.
Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about the quality of their Web site, which is one of the worst designed pieces of crap I’ve ever seen. It’s so bad that most of the body text is actually invisible when viewed with Firefox! So view it with MSIE or highlight the whole page in Firefox in order to read the text. And take my word for the fact that they are better at their work than they are at designing Web pages.
They will also sell you instructions for permanently disconnecting your airbag, although I suspect you may be able to find that information elsewhere on the Web at lower or no cost.
You could just get it deactivated, and drive what you like. If you liked your current Taurus, you’ll absolutely love the current one. It’s a Volvo with Ford skin (seriously).
The Hyundai Genesis (sedan) has “intelligent” front airbags which adjust the angle of inflation based on the height of the occupant, or deactivate them completely for those under 4’2".
Certain model Volvos have both a pyrotechnicly collapsible steering column and a 3 stage airbag both designed to assist in helping smaller than normal drivers in the event of an accident. all current Volvos have multiple inflation criteria dependent on seat belt usage, and impact force.
I will be happy to supply you with further info if you tell me which model Volvo you might be interested in.
Thanks for the answers! I’d rather buy a car with a safer airbag than go without an airbag at all, unless the contention of the ones who suggested turning it off is that no airbag currently on the market would be safter than doing without. I don’t care enough about cars to do that, and if my number one criteria is a safe airbag, then that just helps narrow down the field for me.
Volvo’s stuff sounds awesome, though. I like midsize cars, not SUV’s or trucks or anything too tiny where the whole car would be crushed in an accident! I’m having trouble getting the volvo site to work for me right now, but suggest some models.
You should perhaps also look into pedal extenders or cars with adjustable pedals that would allow you to sit farther from the steering wheel.
Personally, I’ve always been somewhat skeptical about the need for airbags when the regular three-point seat belt is used religiously. I had a Miata a few years ago and replaced the stock steering wheel with a (bag-less) sport wheel that looked and handled much better. Because I always strap in when I get in my cars, I felt confident in doing without it. (In about six years of owning the car, I never had to put that belief to the test, fortunately.)
IIRC, my reading on the subject at the time suggested that while airbags sometimes reduce injuries for people with belts, their biggest advantage comes in accidents where the person wasn’t wearing the belt. Also, that there are relatively few accidents which are fatal with belts alone but not with airbags and belts. (This may have changed with the increased use of side-curtain airbags.)
FYI: I switch the airbags in my Nissan 350Z off when I’m driving on the track, because I’m wearing a helmet and strapped in with six-point harnesses: the airbags would offer little or no additional benefit. And if I did have a minor off-course excursion and hit something, it would cost me thousands to replace them, on top of whatever other damage was done.
Use of a seatbelt in conjunction with an airbag reduces the risk of severe spinal injury by 33% over just the airbag, and by a similar figure over just a seatbelt. Might want to rethink your practices there.
Yes. My point was not that airbags are useless, but that they only add a relatively small increment of safety over belts, in some kinds of accident. Their biggest advantage has been to protect people who didn’t use belts. If, like me, you always wear your belts, you are less likely to gain a benefit from the airbags. With the Miata, I was willing to take that risk.
And since, in the case of the OP and many others, there are risks associated with the airbags, it is a valid point to make that, in some cases, maybe the risk of using them outweighs the potential benefits. Once that decision is made, one can take further steps to reduce the remaining risks. For instance, using pedal extenders, since being further from the wheel adds a safety margin with belts alone, too.
“Dealers and repair businesses are statutorily prohibited from making Federally required safety equipment inoperative…”
IANAL, but that implies to me that the owner could legally do the job him/herself. Of course, it’s not necessarily easy, and it’s definitely dangerous.
I didn’t get permission to remove my Miata wheel/airbag, but I was very cautious in handling it to make sure it always faced away from me. And I stored it in a carefully chosen location.
I did get permission for the switches for the 350Z. Before finding Sensible Solutions, my Nissan dealer declined to install switches, even though I had the permission form.
I’ll let Rick or GaryT provide the authoritative word on this, but my WAG is that 1) you’d face a slight risk of actually setting it off in the process, which would be a Very Bad Thing, and 2) even if you didn’t, you wouldn’t disable it using that method. Airbags already have holes in them to assure deflation after the initial very rapid inflation. You’d probably only make it behave less predictably, and therefore possibly more dangerously.
