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1994 Nissan Altima crash test showing airbag striking dummy in the eyes.

Nissan ad showing misleading soft pillow-like airbags.

1994 Nissan Altima crash test showing tethers that hold the airbag back from striking the occupant prior to full inflation.

The Truth About Airbags

Airbags are supposed to be fully inflated before the passenger falls into it during a crash. Serious injuries occur when airbags, which can travel at speeds up to 200 mph, hit occupants prior to full inflation. An example is the 1994 Nissan Altima, which has blinded or significantly visually impaired at least 30 passengers.

Some airbags "punch out" of their storage compartments with such great force that they can throw a child into the rear seat of a car.

How An Airbag Works

Airbags inflate, or deploy, quickly -- faster than the blink of an eye. Imagine taking one second and splitting it into one thousand parts. In the first 15 to 20 milliseconds, airbag sensors detect the crash and then send an electrical signal to fire the airbags. Typically a squib, which is a small explosive device, ignites a propellant, usually sodium azide. The azide burns with tremendous speed, generating nitrogen, which inflates the airbags. Within 45 to 55 milliseconds the airbag is supposed to be fully inflated. Within 75 to 80 milliseconds, the airbag is deflated and the event is over.

When airbags work properly, they dramatically reduce the chance of death or serious injury. However, the speed with which airbags inflate generates tremendous forces. Passengers in the way of an improperly designed airbag can be killed or significantly injured. Unnecessary injuries also occur when airbags inflate in relatively minor crashes when they're not needed.

History of Airbags

Airbag patents go back to the 1950s. In the 1970s, both General Motors and Ford placed airbags into a small fleet of automobiles. Generally, the airbags performed well. Only one death was attributed to the air bags and, even in that instance, there was a question as to whether the airbag was the cause of injury. Surprisingly, these 1970s airbags were in many respects more advanced than ones used in the 1990s. They used adjustable inflators, which are only now coming back into use. (See Safer Airbags below.) Throughout the 1980s, manufacturers resisted installing airbags. They felt that safety did not sell vehicles and were worried about costs. They told the government that airbags would kill occupants, especially children. While resisting government regulations, they also halted most airbag research and development activity. In fact, they wasted an entire decade of opportunity to research and develop airbag technology.

Then, in the late 1980s, Chrysler reversed itself and started installing airbags. Lee Iaccoca went on television in the early 1990s and told the public he had been wrong and had now realized that airbags save lives. The race was on. Suddenly, safety was a selling point. Manufacturers were concerned that they would lose sales if they did not have airbags. By 1992, most manufacturers had airbags on the driver side and by the mid-l990s most had airbags on the passenger side as well. TV advertisements showed airbags deploying in a soft billowing fashion.

Slowly, the terrible truth about airbags began to emerge. The dire predictions of the manufacturers to the government in the 1980s, but concealed from the public in the 1990s, proved true. Airbags as they had been designed in the 1980's and 1990's, could kill occupants, especially children and women. By late 1996, the government and manufacturers were compelled to publicly announce that airbags could be dangerous.

Airbag Related Injuries

For the most part, airbags prevent far more injuries than they inflict. However, in the process of protecting people in vehicle crashes, airbags often inflict unnecessary injuries. Abrasions to the face and arms, and other non-permanent or non-incapacitating injuries may be unfortunate, though necessary, trade-offs for the protection against more serious injuries that airbags are supposed to provide. Nonetheless, airbags may unnecessarily inflict permanently debilitating or incapacitating injuries. Documented airbag related injuries include multiple fractures to arms and fingers, severe facial injuries, carotid arteries, blindness, brain stem injuries and other brain damage, in some cases, airbags have decapitated older women and small children. Many of these injuries could be prevented by using knowledge and technology that, in some cases, have been available for years.

Auto Manufacturers’ Negligence

Manufacturers have only themselves to blame for the dangerousness of airbags. After years of stalling, in their rush to install airbags, adequate testing was sacrificed. Typically, manufacturers were content to install an airbag if it met one and only one qualification: compliance with a "minimum" government regulation known as Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 208. This standard required that manufacturers certify their airbags would not inflict certain “injuries” to a 5’9” dummy (both belted and unbelted) in a crash test into a solid barrier at speeds up to 30 mph and frontal angles up to 30 degrees.

The problem with the manufacturers’ approach is that the regulation, by its own language and by the clear intent of the law, is a “minimum” standard. Repeatedly, the government warned manufacturers that FMVSS 208 did not mandate any particular design. Manufacturers were encouraged to do full testing and to implement designs that would protect the full range of vehicle occupant ages, shapes and sizes.

For years, automobile engineers recommended that manufacturers do more than the minimum federal requirement to test using 5’9” dummies with the seat positioned in the middle of the seat track. Cars are occupied not just by average sized male adults, but by men, women and children of all shapes and sizes. Further, occupants do not always sit as the federal standard prescribed and children, in particular, will wiggle out of seat belts and can be close to the dashboard when airbags deploy. Manufacturers were encouraged to test their vehicles with women and children dummies and to do so-called “out-of-position” testing. Largely, manufacturers simply ignored this advice, wishing to place profits far ahead of safety. The testing that manufacturers did do with "out-of-position" dummies confirmed that airbags could be dangerous.

 
 
1999 Acura TL NHTSA test showing a top mounted passenger airbag.
This "static out-of-position" test shows that a top mounted airbag door
does not hit a child under the chin where an airbag door mounted on the
rear of the instrument panel sometimes does.  Doors can easily be
mounted on the rear of the instrument panel to prevent this occurrence.
Stills from NHTSA video clip.

Safer Airbags

Today, there is a rush to design “smart” airbags. Virtually all of the proposed solutions have, in fact, already been used in a small number of vehicles or are technologically feasible. Safer airbag designs include the following:

1. Higher deployment thresholds. Most airbags are set to deploy in crashes between 6 and 12 miles per hour. This is far too low. Numerous studies have shown that an airbag is not needed unless a crash is at least 18 mph. BMW, Mercedes, and Volvo have long had systems that deploy an airbag at 18 mph if the occupant is seat belted.

2. Less aggressive airbags. In 1998, manufacturers introduced so-called “second generation” airbags. To the public, this sounded like a new design. In fact, all that manufacturers did was to use less propellant in their design. That is, they simply reduced the amount of propellant. Virtually nothing else changed. Tests showed that these depowered bags still passed the version of FMVSS 208 that manufacturers blamed for overly aggressive airbags. In fact, nothing prevented manufacturers from utilizing these less aggressive airbags from the beginning.

3. Tethers. Tethers are internal straps that cost only about $3.00. They hold the airbag back from intruding too far into the occupant compartment, decreasing the chance of injury. Tethers are an easy fix, yet many airbags do not have them.

4. Adjustable inflators. As the name sounds, the inflator is the component of the airbag that inflates the airbag. In the 1970s, the General Motors fleet with airbags had adjustable inflators. In less severe collisions that airbag inflated less quickly than it did in more severe collisions. This same design is now one of the primary designs being touted as a smart airbag. There is no good reason that adjustable inflators could not have been used in every vehicle.

5. Better sensors. Many airbag related injuries are directly due to sensors. Many are too sensitive or unable to distinguish between a minor event, such as going over a curb, and a significant event, like a head-on collision. Sensors vary in many ways: some are mechanical, others are electrical, and still others a combination of the two. Also, the number of sensors and their placement vary widely within the industry. Bad sensors can delay too long the firing of an airbag or deploy them prematurely.

6. Suppression systems. People, and not crash dummies, sit in vehicles. They move. A short driver may sit close to the steering wheel or, a passenger, may bend over to pick up or put down something or lean over to tune the radio. A passenger who bends over comes perilously close to the airbag. Manufacturers know this and are aware of several systems designed to suppress the bag from firing. It is recognized in the industry that an occupant close to an airbag is most likely to be killed or sustain serious injuries. Thus, some manufacturers have placed weight sensors in seats or in the floor pan. Weight sensors help to determine if a child is in the seat or is standing close to the airbag. Other manufacturers have developed “bias” flaps. These are airbags designed to detect if an occupant is in the way of the deploying airbag. If there is, the bag redirects its forces to the side rather than directly into the occupant. Still others are exploring the use of infrared technology to detect people who are "out of postion."

7. Better seat belt systems. An airbag is only one part of a vehicle’s restraint system. They are intended to supplement seat belts. However, seat belts may be part of the problem. Many allow the occupant to move too far forward and into the path of the deploying air bag. Recognizing this, many vehicles have better seat belt systems such as these that have pretensioners. These are devices that fire at the same time as the airbag. They pull the slack out of the seat belt and prevent excessive forward movement. Pretensioners are widely available in Europe and have been used in numerous vehicles in the United States for years.

What To Do If You Are Injured By An Airbag

If you are or a loved one is seriously injured by an airbag, there are a number of steps to take:

First, preserve the vehicle.  Do not have it repaired or let it be sold until it is inspected by an expert.

Second, take photographs, not only of the vehicle, but also of the injury.

Third, consult with an attorney. A competent attorney is capable of representing your interests and defeating false claims often used by auto manufacturers.

(02/23/00)