Obviously most passenger cars have airbags, motorcycles (Honda Goldwing have airbags (in some ways more like an ATV than a car). However, you would think that a vehicle with four wheels (such as an ATV) would have an airbag (especially if it were a utility ATV). So why don’t ATV’s have airbags yet, or are there experimental models I don’t know about?
what good would airbags do if you flip the vehicle? or if you’re thrown from the vehicle?
It is no use if the first big bump you hit triggers the airbag …
An ATV should have safety features built in - roll cage, 6 point harness, bull bars. The addition of an airbag which could be triggered by normal impacts not caused by crashes is not going to improve safety.
Si
Wouldn’t you need to have an enclosed space? The only ATV accident I’ve witnessed personally (I’ve never driven one) was during a trip when a friend attempted a jump and landed on his front wheels causing the ATV to flip, land and roll over him. I don’t see how an airbag would have helped here unless it came out of the seat.
Driving a 4 wheeler often involves pushing through heavy brush. Having an airbag explode in your face in such a situation would not improve safety.
Keep in mind, the ATV has no seat belt or back rest. If the airbag expanded, it would probably blow the rider backwards off the vehicle.
If it’s not a street legal vehicle there is far less justification for regulating bodies to impose safety features.
You would wear an “air bag suit” for the google search term. Not much good without a helmet for the head trauma part. The suits run in the $500-$600 range.
Automobile airbags are designed for a very narrow, specific set of circumstances, namely the controlled deceleration of a human body moving (more or less) exactly forward at speeds of at least in excess of approximately 30 MPH (or rather at deceleration rates which generally will only occur at this speed or higher). An ATV is simply not like a car traveling at high speed on a smooth road in mostly a straight line. Not at all.
Because ATV riders don’t want to be thrown clear in case of an accident.
I’ve been in several ATV wrecks and I do like to be thrown clear.
Well, bang goes my theory.
hydroplane drivers thought the same thing until a lot of them ended up dead.
I’ve never heard the dead ones complain.
well no shit
Until an ATV has a cage around it, I’ll always prefer to be thrown clear. On the other hand, when using a side by side I prefer to be buckled in. Airbags aren’t necessary.
With better seat belts, you don’t need airbags. I don’t know of any racing series that allows them to be used.
In that case, why don’t ATVs have ejection seats? 