Introduction Who Needs Air Bags?
B. Air bag solution air bags improve auto safety
V. Insurance industry position on air bags
B. Position, debate, future action by insurance companies
A. Summary of costs for consumer and industry
The use of passive restraints (air bags) in automobiles offers great potential for reducing deaths and serious injuries on the roads in the United States. Seat belt systems, presently required by most states, are effective only when properly used. However, many studies show that less than 20 per cent of automobiles drivers and passengers use their seat belts ("Auto" 1). Since the early 1970s, there has been debate over requiring automobile manufacturers to install mandatory air bags in every automobile sold in the United States. In 1977, for example, the Secretary of Transportation mandated passive front seat restraint systems (U.S. Congress 1). Yet even with this mandate it was not until September 1989 that automobile manufacturers found it necessary to comply with federally mandated regulations ("Air" 8).
Simply put, air bags work. They were installed and tested on several thousand GM cars in the early 1970s, and have significantly contributed to the saving of lives. Studies are often contradictory, however, most show air bags to be reliable over a long period of disuse reliably inflating only in collisions which threaten the occupant. In fact, one study showed that the use of air bags could reduce automobile deaths by about 40 percent (Passell A34). That same study "estimated that the medical and disability cost savings alone would exceed the expense of installing the equipment" (Passell A34). For this reason, it is important that air bags should be installed in all automobiles.
Air bags work as a passive restraining measure. Electronic sensors in the front of the automobile are programmed to respond to forces of jolts which exceed 12 m.p.h. Signals are then rel...