Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site cylixd.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!akgub!cylixd!lane From: lane@cylixd.UUCP (Lane Anderson) Newsgroups: net.consumers Subject: Re: If you could save lives, would you? Message-ID: <250@cylixd.UUCP> Date: Thu, 5-Sep-85 10:32:22 EDT Article-I.D.: cylixd.250 Posted: Thu Sep 5 10:32:22 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 7-Sep-85 07:29:53 EDT References: <2778@harpo.UUCP> Reply-To: lane@cylixd.UUCP (Lane Anderson) Followup-To: Net.followup, net.auto Organization: RCA Cylix Communications , Memphis, TN Lines: 75 Keywords: Airbags, Safety Summary: Airbags of questionable usefulness In article <2778@harpo.UUCP> version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site cylixd.UUCP version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site harpo.UUCP cylixd!akgub!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!jad jad@harpo.UUCP (jad) writes: > > If you had the power to save lives, would you do it? You and I do have that > power. On this day and at this moment, people are being smashed to death > inside their cars when their lives could be preserved by air bags. We are > deprived of air bags by the opposing efforts of the powerful auto industry. > Safety experts claim that each year air bags would prevent thousands of > deaths and prevent hundreds of thousands of serious injuries. A chorus of > voices raised in unison and directed at our representatives would have a > great impact. Please write. No endeavor is more important nor more noble > than to save lives. > I hesitated to respond to this posting for fear of the discussion that would be started. Because of the desire to keep a long winded discus- sion out of this newsgroup, this will be my only posting on this matter. Any further postings should go net.followups, net.auto (please don't), or net.flame (probably). One more little disclaimer, THIS IS NOT A FLAME, just my opinion. Now on with it. I am what could be charitably called a car nut. Part of that nuttiness includes the avid reading and studying of car related issues. This study has scared the heck out of me concerning airbags. On the surface they seem like a good idea but there are a number of things which bother me. 1. The gas used to inflate them has been linked to some forms of cancer (but then hasn't everything?). 2. They are of NO USE WHATSOEVER in any collision other than a frontal or front angle collision. 3. They are of NO USE WHATSOEVER in a multiple collision accident. They cannot be reinflated quickly. 4. They are a complicated system. Anyone on this net knows how "compli- cated systems" often don't work as they should. In this case it could be fatal. If they don't trigger when thy should, R.I.P. If they do trigger when they shouldn't, they could easily cause an accident. 5. If you are smoking, particularly a pipe or cigar, what you are smok- ing may very likely be crammed down your throat or shoved into your face. Admitedly this IS better than hitting the windshield. 6. In an accident just at the trigger speed (I forget what the typical trigger speed is), the dashboard damage could easily be more expen- sive to repair than the exterior damage. 7. They would discourage the use of seatbelts. As an avid seatbelt user (I am not anti-safety), this last point really bothers me. Seatbelts have been proven to be the most effective safety device available. My biased opinion is that many of the people who are proponents of airbags do not wear seatbelts. Why should those of us who take an active interest in our safety be penalized because others would rather have a machine do it for them? The logic of seatbelts seems to me to be unassailable (but then who am I?). None of the prob- lems mentioned above apply to seatbelts. One last point and then I'll leave this newsgroup alone. If you think that insurance rates will be reduced for any length of time due to airbags, remember the 5 MPH bumper. For the first 2 or 3 years after they were required, rates were lower. Then the insurance companies howled about how expensive it was to repair these bumpers when the speed of the accident was greater than 5 MPH. Rates were allowed to go up significantly. Disclaimer number ?: I do feel better in a parking lot with my 5 MPH bumpers and that is going to be a (minor) factor in my next automotive purchase. Anyway, this posting is based on data I have read from automotive maga- zines who are not as anti-consumerist as many people think. It is also based on by brand of common sense. I will not purchase a car equipped with airbags unless I have no other choice. Give me passive seatbelts if you must but I want no exploding garbage sacks in front of me.