So, “Some people do everything right and still get killed by air bags”, mostly “short (under 62 inches) female drivers who apparently sat close to the steering wheel”.
Um, so what about short (under 62 inches) males who sit close to the wheel? Do airbags favor them somehow? What about people, whether male or female, who are exactly 62 inches tall? Are they also “now eligible to have a switch installed that lets them disable the air bag”?
How would I go about getting the government’s lordly permission to do so? Is that a good idea anyway? (Yes, I belt up always.)
ETA: I guess I should add, although I always belt up, I put the belt under my armpit rather than over the shoulder so it won’t strangle me. Yes, I know that isn’t recommended. I’m not even sure if it’s legal. But it’s something that I think a lot of short drivers do.
Cecil’s column was written in 1998 a few years after mandatory airbags were required for both passengers in the front seat. In 2006, all cars now deploy newer systems that are sometimes referred to as smart airbags.
These systems use a series of sensors to determine whether the airbag should deploy, how fast the deployment, and how much to deploy. There is probably a sensor in the seat to determine the size of the occupant and how fast to deploy the airbags. There’s probably another sensor seeing how close the seat is to the dash or steering wheel which will determine how much air to pump into an airbag. Another sonar sensor fires right after an accident is detected to take a picture of the passengers. This makes further adjustments to the airbag deployment.
Back in 1998, it may have been wise to disable the airbag system if you had to sit very close to the dashboard or steering wheel. That advice isn’t valid any more.
Still, there are people who are killed by airbag deployments, but I believe it has fallen in recent years to around 10 or so per year.
My former business associate (72") who on his better days could best be described as loopy had an extremely self-destructive habit.
He was obsessed with being first in any traffic. He was also obsessed with driving a large Landrover Discovery that had the usual ineffectual brakes.
He would jockey for position in traffic by leaning forward so his chest was on the steering wheel so he could get a better view in the mirrors to effect the ‘instantaneous’ lane shift he desired.
As a passenger, seeing this maniac driving with his chest on the steering-wheel airbag while swerving at high speed in traffic was more than unsettling.
His only saving grace was that his car had Lucas electrics and so the probability of the airbag firing was low.
There’s a PSA that advises children 4’9" and under should be in a car seat. I find it amusing every time it comes on and remark to my wife that she’s only about a hand’s length away from needing a car seat.
I remember when New Jersey changed their carseat law and started requiring anyone under 4’9" to be in a car or booster seat. My youngest son who had stopped using a car seat a few months previously would now suddenly find himself demoted back to baby. He let us know he wasn’t going back to a car seat.
I am also 5’ 2" and was concerned about this. I knew I could pay Honda a bunch of money to disable my airbags. So I called my insurance company to ask if that would put my coverage in jeopardy or raise my premiums or anything like that. According to my agent (State Farm), the answer is nope: Lots of people drive cars that don’t have airbags at all and they get insured. I may lose a discount, but that would be the extent of the impact.
In the end, I decided to take my chances. So far, I haven’t had an airbag deploy on me. I actually worry about my dog – she’s heavy enough to trigger the seatbelt chime so I have to strap her in. She prefers it that way because she won’t face plant into the dashboard if I have to stop short. (The seats are slippery and her front paws just slide right off and boom! Doggie face in the dash.) I’d train her to ride in the back, but I think there’s airbags back there too and besides, Dog is my Copilot.
My 5’1" wife had the airbag go off when a deer bounded in front of her car. She had the tiniest scratch on her nose, probably from her glasses, and nothing else.
Extrapolating from one incident - don’t worry, I’m writing on the Internet, where this is legal - I’d say short people are better off with airbags than without.
In my new car (2014 Honda Civic) there is a feature that automatically disables the passenger airbag if a non-adult sized person is sitting in the passenger seat - I discovered this when I took one of my cats to the vet. I belted his carrier in to the front seat, and got a notification that the passenger airbag was turned off. I assume it sensed that the weight was too light for an adult (kitty only weighs 8 pounds). I don’t know of any studies regarding kitties in carriers being injured by airbags, but if it’s an issue, I’m glad my cats are now safe!
He did say “many”, so there’s room for some of them to be short males. Statistically, there are more short females in that range than males.
Many cars have adjustable seatbelt attach points for this reason, but your car sounds like it does not. The upside of going under your arm is that it keeps the belt from cutting across your neck and strangling you. The downside is that if you are in an accident, the belt tensioner will squish across your ribcage instead of across your shoulder. The chest bruise is likely to crack a rib or two, but that’s still probably better than the other options. Have a cutting tool handy in case the belt release jams. (That’s good advice for everyone.)
That’s ridiculously stupid - mirrors are adjustable. Mine are set so they show a more side view than directly behind me - that’s what the center mirror is for. This reduces the blind spot - gone for cars in the lanes on each side, do need to watch for motorcycles or any outer lanes. A buddy of mine drives a pickup with blacked out back window and camper. He has dome mirrors on his to give the wider perspective, so he can keep the mirrors set to look behind for backing. I’ve driven his truck a few times, but I don’t like it. Not very experienced with not being able to see out the back.
There will be injuries attributable to airbags that have never been reported. (For example, I can envisage that over the last 25 years plenty of people will have been injured in car wrecking yards by triggering these devices while trying to extract some other component). Let’s treat that as a “known unknown”
What I would like to know is how may of these airbags have been fitted (let’s just keep the stats to America), and the approximate cost, and the so the nominal cost per life saved.
I suspect that the worldwide cost (let’s not forget that America legislated) and the world mindlessly fell into step) is millions and millions of dollars - all because of lazy people and the nanny state
We could say the same for almost any piece of safety equipment. You could claim that most safety devices are merely for lazy people. Insulated wires? People should know not to touch wires when they’re plugged in! Guard rails on long mountain roads? People should just be more careful coming down the road!
The question is do they save lives?
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:
I also found this:
Do a little math, and you find that air bags saved 11,362 people who were wearing seatbelts.
Of course, that’s not a cost/benefit analysis. Was saving those over 11,000 lives worth the $400 to $700 it costs to install airbags on each and every car? That’s a dangerous calculation to make. Ford made it back in the 1970s with the Pinto. Ford initially decided that the cost of paying victims in traffic accidents was way cheaper than the $11 it would cost to recall and fix every Pinto.
Unfortunately, Mother Jones Magazine found that memo, published it, and Ford ended up paying $128,000,000 in punitive damages.
Going by your cite, it is vague as to whether “smart airbags” are required just for the front passenger seat (to prevent deaths to children, who shouldn’t be there in the first place) or for all of the airbags (which would help the short-statured driver, too.) I was under the impression that the former was standard in all new cars, but the latter is still pretty rare. I was in the market for a new car just last year and had a hard time finding any vehicle that advertised a smart airbag system for the driver.
