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.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.2 Yet even with this mandate it was not until September 1989 that automobile manufacturers found it necessary to comply with federally mandated regulations.3
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
1 "Auto Air Bag Debate," Editorial Research Reports Reminder Service, (5 March 1981): 1.
2 U.S. Congress, Office of the Comptroller General, Passive Restraints For Automobile Occupants A Closer Look, (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1979), 1.
3 "Air Bags, At Last," The Progressive (September 1988): 8. For example, Ford announced that it would install air bags on the 1989 Continental, and on eleven 1990 models. Chrysler and General Motors are expected to follow suit.
"The Air Bags Are Coming." Consumers' Research Magazine (May
"Air Bags, At Last." The Progressive (September 1988): 8.
Aird, Alisandair. The Automobile Nightmare. London:
"Auto Air Bag Debate." Editorial Research Re
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