Parents' Group Blasts Auto Industry Over Air Bag Design
20 October 1997
Parents' Group Blasts Auto Industry Over Air Bag Design
Publishes Book, 'The Air Bag Crisis: Causes and Solutions';
Opposes Senate Amendment to Weaken Safety Standards
WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 -- A group of parents whose children were
killed or injured by automobile air bags says proposed legislation eliminating
certain types of crash test dummies from federal testing of the safety devices
is a "bad idea" that avoids "real world crash scenarios."
Robert Sanders, founder of Parents for Safer Air Bags, says legislation to
be introduced this week by Sen. Dirk Kempthorne, R-Idaho, which would
eliminate unbelted dummies from federal safety testing, is "based on an
erroneous premise" that air bags can't be effective for unbelted adults in
high-speed collisions, while at the same time being safe for children in low-
speed crashes.
In fact, Sanders says, different types of dummies -- in all different
positions -- should be added to the testing procedures, including child and
short female replicas.
The parents' group is distributing copies of its new book, "The Air Bag
Crisis: Causes and Solutions," to members of Congress, federal regulators and
automakers. The book urges the changes in federal auto safety tests.
Sanders says that loopholes in current testing procedures "have allowed
the less scrupulous automakers to market air bags that are inherently
dangerous for short women drivers and children."
After conducting extensive research into original documents produced by
automakers and others the parents' group concludes that the air bag crisis is
the direct result of an inadequate federal air bag test. Some automakers are
satisfied to only meet the minimum federal requirements, according to the
parents' group.
"As a result, they ignore the safer designs used by the more responsible
manufacturers. These safer designs include vertical rather than horizontal
deployment, variable inflation forces depending on crash severity, high
deployment thresholds for belted occupants, and tightly tethered bags that do
not extend too close to the occupant. What's needed is a strict federal test
that 'weeds out' vehicles with dangerously designed air bags," Sanders says.
As to the dangerous air bag systems already on the road, the parents'
group urges the retrofit of the components in the air bag system: a redesigned
crash sensor that has a higher "trigger" and a redesigned air bag with shorter
internal tethers to keep the bag from getting too close to the occupant.
The group also supports air bag "on-off" switches as an interim measure,
but says it is critical that consumers be provided with "vehicle specific"
information about the design and safety record of each air bag. "This will
minimize the shut off of air bags that have a stellar safety record," says
Sanders.
The manufacturers of air bag systems that do not have these features
defend their systems by saying that their systems meet the federal requirement
of protection to the average-sized adult. The parents' group counters that
the statute that created the safety standards expressly states that the
standards are minimal and that compliance with them does not exempt a
manufacturer from common law liability for using a dangerous and defective
design.
"The Air Bag Crisis: Causes and Solutions" attacks, with specifics and
evidence, those automakers that opted for the less safe designs, for
concealing the dangers and failing to correct the defects in their systems.
SOURCE Parents for Safer Air Bags
