Air Bags Enhance Safety

Air Bags are lifesaving safety devices built into automobiles and designed to activate when a frontal impact occurs. Air bags should be used with safety belts to provide maximum occupant protection. The air bag opens with a speed of 300 km/hour. If not well buckled to his seat, a passenger might get severely injured by the sudden inflation of the air bag even if the crash is minor.

A driver side air bag is stored in the steering column, while a passenger side air bag is stored above the glove compartment. Air bags are not visible until they are needed but are marked by the initials "SRS" on the cover which stands for "Supplemental Restraint System". This label proves that air bags are supplemental safety system and do not replace seat belts.

Air bags are made of lightweight nylon, and are inflated with a nitrogen gas. Air bags are packed with powder or cornstarch to insure smooth inflation. This powder sometimes causes a cloud, which is sometimes mistaken for smoke.

While air bags are saving lives, it is important to know that air bags and young children (under age 13) do not mix. The risk to these young children can be entirely eliminated if they are properly buckled up in the back seat.

Determining Head Injury Risk
The major focus is on head injury since it is the major cause of serious injury or fatalities in crashes. In addition, head injuries occur where the air bag can provide a supplemental benefit over the seatbelt. YASA and many other specialized road safety institutions have done many Television promotions about the importance of airbags in enhancing safety.

How do air bags work? 
A front air bag is designed to inflate in moderate to severe frontal or near-frontal crashes. Aside air bag is designed to inflate in moderate to severe impacts at a side of the vehicle. In an impact of sufficient severity, the air bag sensing systems detect that the vehicle is stopping suddenly or, in the case of a side air bag, that there is a side impact. The sensing system triggers the inflation of the air bag very quickly, faster than the blink of an eye.

One way to comprehend the power of an inflating air bag is to understand the weight, which an air bag can resist. An inflating frontal air bag can resist more than 1,134 kg of force. Safety belts must be used with air bags; which are designed to supplement the protection that safety belts provide. Air bags distribute the force of the impact more evenly over the occupant’s upper body, stopping the occupant more gradually.

Air bags plus lap-shoulder belts offer the best protection for adults and older children, but not for young children and infants. Neither the vehicle’s safety belt system nor its air bag system is designed for them. Young children and infants need the protection that a child restraint system can provide.

Following few precautions can ensure greater protection for all travelers. Those in danger from a passenger-side frontal air bag include anyone leaning up against, or very close to, the instrument panel of children, especially those riding unrestrained: and a baby in a rear-facing infant seat. In addition, objects should never be placed over an air bag or between an air bag and an occupant.

Children and Air Bags 

YASA recommends to never put a rear –facing child seat (those used with infants) in the front seat of a car with an air bag and to make sure that all children are buckled up no matter where they sit because unbuckled children can be hurt or killed by an air bag. The rear seat is the safest place for children of any age to ride.

What’s the problem?
Most new cars have air bags for front-seat passengers. When used with lap/shoulder belts, air bags work very well to protect older children and adults who ride facing the front of the car.
Air bags do not work with rear-facing child seats (those used with infants).
Air bags could seriously injure or even kill an unbuckled child or adult who is sitting too close to the air bags or who is thrown toward the dash during emergency braking.
In a crash, the air bag inflates very quickly. It could hit anything close to the dashboard with enough force to cause severe injuries or even death because the back of a rear-facing child seat sits very close to the dashboard, the seat could be struck with enough force to cause serious, or even fatal injuries to a baby. 
Even older children (who have outgrown child seats) are at risk from a deploying air bag, if they are not properly restrained with a lap/shoulder belt.

 
What should be done?
The rear seat is the safest place for children of any age to ride.  An infant in a rear-facing child seat must ride in the back seat if your vehicle has a passenger side air big (babies under 1 year and 20 pounds always ride in a rear- facing seat). Parents should make sure that everyone in the front seat is properly buckled up and seated as far back from the air bags as is reasonably possible.

They should make sure that all young children are properly secured in a child safety seat and older children by a lap/shoulder belt. It is advised to know how to properly install children in the car. According to YASA, rare are parents who read both the owner’s manual for the vehicle and the instructions for their child safety seat.