Passive Restraints for Automobile Occupants--A Closer Look

All new cars manufactured after September 1, 1983, will be required to have passive restraint systems requiring no action by occupants. The two systems being considered are air bags and automatic seat belts. The Secretary of Transportation mandated passive front seat restraint systems to overcome the public's reluctance to buckle up their seat belts.

While the restraints offer life-saving and injury-prevention potential, testing indicates that a potential danger from a deploying air bag may exist for out-of-position occupants. Because of the importance of the mandate, both in terms of cost and safety to the American public, the actual experience with passive restraints must be evaluated. Thus far, testing has been done under laboratory conditions. Real world data for air bags is still too limited to support a reliable estimate of effectiveness in reducing serious and fatal injuries. Furthermore, many questions are unanswered concerning the health and safety risks of using the chemical sodium azide to inflate air bags. Since air bag systems containing sodium azide could be installed in millions of cars, additional research needs to be conducted on this chemical to measure its risks. The cost estimates of the airbags are high, but several major insurance companies either offer or plan to offer discounts for passive restraints.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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