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_Airbags _
By: Chris
Airbags, Are They Worth It? Airbags have been known not only for their saving
lives but also for taking them. Airbags were an option in the mid 1970s and
now airbags are standard in every car. ( Automobile ) Airbags are built into
steering columns, dashboards and in newer cars also the side panels, to
cushion passengers and drivers in an event of a wreck. Airbags are made from
nylon and inflated with sodium oxide and nitrogen. Now that airbags are so
common and expensive, thieves are known to steal and sell them. During the
rainstorm, its hard to see anything especially when the downpour makes the
windshield wipers work constantly. On this cold, dreary February night Tracy
was driving her 1996 Ford Explorer with her husband in the passenger seat and
her 16-month-old daughter, Alix, in her car seat in the back. Suddenly, out of
nowhere, a tall, 12 point buck is caught by the vehicles' headlights. Both the
buck and Tracy freeze. A second later, a powerful explosion occurs inside the
cabin of the car. The airbags deflate nearly as quickly as they inflate. An
hour later a car sees the wreck and stops to help. At that point, Tracy had no
pulse, her husband is unconscious, and Alix was screaming in the back seat.
(Mellon, Webster &Mellon) At last count, this scenario has happened 135 times.
(Strong) How many more times does it have to happen before the automotive
industry does something about it? Drivers are not the only victims, though.
Small women, children, and the elderly have also been killed as a result of
airbags. The time has come to ask ourselves, "Do airbags really work?" First
off, most people feel that airbags are a great safety device. They let people
walk away from an accident without a scratch, right? They protect everybody,
right? People dont need seatbelts if their car has an airbag, right? Wrong.
Airbags cause injuries, airbags kill, and airbags dont work unless seatbelts
are worn. In a rollover accident, people still have a chance of being thrown
from the car even if their car has airbags. When looking at the airbag issue,
we must first look at the issue of safety. When the idea of installing airbags
was first introduced, it seemed to be a good, life-saving idea. However,
airbags have snapped the necks of 135 children and short women. (Strong)
Smaller women might survive their accidents if airbags werent installed in
their vehicles. True, airbags have had some success. Airbags have been
credited with saving 3,800 lives since they have been introduced. (Akre) The
airbags may be saving some lives. However, in other cases, they are doing more
damage than good. USA Today broke the story on airbag performance. The news
report told us that airbags deliver enough non-lethal injuries to the
passengers that it offsets their performance on overall injuries. The net
result is that airbags have been found to cause injuries in so many accidents
that the little good they do is overshadowed by the injuries they cause. Now
that you understand some of the problems with the performance of airbags,
lets look at another problem, why they are unreliable. The reliability of
airbags is questioned since they do not protect all sizes of bodies. When the
first airbags were tested, the engineers didnt take into account the
different sizes of people the bags would have to protect. They used a
one-sized dummy. The engineers didnt think about the possibility of babies in
the front seat or smaller-framed people being hurt by the bags. The airbag
deploys at speeds of 200 miles an hour. ( Air bag ) The bags explode when a
sensor sets them off, whether the car is involved in a fender bender or a head
on collision. If the cars sensors could sense the severity of the crash, the
airbag could deploy with more or less force, resulting in less overall
injuries. These "smart sensors" are still on the drawing board. It will be
years before they are being put into full effect. According to Ford and
General Motors, the advent of "smart sensors" will accompany "smarter
airbags." These airbags will not only be located in the steering wheel and the
glove box, but on the side of the seats. The airbags will also be smart enough
to know whether a passenger airbag should deploy, in case no one is seated
there. ( GM, Ford rethink safety ) Hopefully, the cost will not overshadow the
safety devices. . Until that time, drivers will have to continue to use good
driving skills. Cost is a major decision when deciding what car to buy. Since
the price of insurance is rising, most people want a car that is cost
effective when it comes to insurance. Insurance companies actually charge
substantially more to insure an airbag-equipped car. The insurance rate for an
airbag-equipped car will continue to rise, due to the reports of airbag
related deaths. The main reason the insurance is so high for an airbag
equipped car is that the cost of replacing a deployed airbag is expensive. The
air bags cost nearly 800 dollars to replace. (Doran) A simple fender bender
can result in thousands of dollars of medical bills and another thousand to
fix the car. Airbags not only cause injury and raise insurance, they also make
your car a target. If you have an airbag in your car, a thief can be 200
dollars richer in two minutes. The couple of hundred dollars received by the
thieves is more than enough incentive to target them, since they are worth
more than most car stereos. A couple of screwdrivers and two minutes of time
is all it takes to steal an airbag. (Newman) Quite an incentive for the
average thief. The thief has no use for the bags, though. So who buys them?
Any repair shop owner that wants to stay competitive, thats who. When stolen
bags and sensors are sold illegally to repair shops, the repair shops endanger
everybody. Airbags arent easily transferred from one vehicle to another.
Sensors might be different or the size of the bag may be improper. People have
no way of knowing if the airbags will even go off. After paying upwards of a
thousand dollars to replace an airbag, knowing whether or not it will go off
should not even be a factor. (Newman) The last problem with airbags is the
fact that people seem to become more dangerous on the roads when they have
them. People not only drive faster, they also take more risks. These risks
include increased speeding and not wearing their seatbelts. Drivers with
airbag equipped cars feel that the airbag gives them an advantage, and that
they can drive like a maniac. An airbag will not work properly if a seatbelt
isnt worn. (Healey &ODonnell) This belief can kill, as it has before. Many
people would probably still be alive today if they had worn their seatbelt in
conjunction with their airbag. In an accident, the airbag will not prevent the
passenger from being ejected from the vehicle. If people just wear seatbelts,
they do not face a chance of being ejected from a vehicle. If people dont
wear any safety device, they sustain serious injuries in fender benders.
Airbags can even harm people in a low speed crash. (Strong) Airbags cause more
problems over all than they are worth. Airbags cause death and insurance rates
to increase due to theft and the increasing number of airbags located in a
car. Automakers need to consider installing smart sensors as soon as
possible. Lets not forget that there have already been way too many accidents
that were preventable.
Word Count: 1281
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