RALPH HOAR
IN MEMORIAM

Raging Hoar Moans
Airbag Blah, Blah, Blah

NHTSA's air bag PR posturing and proposals appear designed primarily to quiet public concerns. Meanwhile, don't expect any substantive action until 1997. "De-powering" bags for less violent inflation is likely to reduce some injuries to children. However, NHTSA's proposal to allow the wide spread disconnection of air bags is an abdication of its responsibility. It's a mistake to permit individuals to disable these safety devices in the midst of misinformation and media hysteria.

The public debate on this issue has lost sight of the fact that automakers are ultimately responsible for the safety of their products. Nothing in more than 25 years of government proposals and regulations has prevented manufacturers from using "smart bag" technology. For automakers to blame the government and former government officials for deaths and injuries associated with airbags is a shameless refusal to be accountable for their own decisions. During the last quarter century, if automakers had worked as hard on the evolution of air bag technology as they did fighting it these proposals would not be necessary.

While NHTSA fiddles with deciding what "smart bag technology" means and how to require it, at least one supplier has efforts on hold.

OPTSF447

12/10/96