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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!Glacier!kestrel!king
From: king@kestrel.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: If you could save lives, would you ?
Message-ID: <1007@kestrel.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 10-Sep-85 12:26:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: kestrel.1007
Posted: Tue Sep 10 12:26:30 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Sep-85 23:13:21 EDT
References: <2776@harpo.UUCP> <409@scirtp.UUCP>
Organization: Kestrel Institute, Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 25
Summary: Airbags may kill thousands

In article <409@scirtp.UUCP>, todd@scirtp.UUCP (Todd Jones) 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 heard (though it may have been a Republican inspired rumor) there
> were many problems with airbags inflating on the highway when cars
> run over small objects. If this is true, I'll go on wearing my seatbelt.
> 
> -todd jones

I wish to point out another problem with airbags.  They are alledged
to cut the death rate by 15% or so, unlike seatbelts which can cut it
by 35%.  (The reason is that they only protect against head-ons.)

Suppose the existence of airbags convinces a sizable portion of the
population not to wear seatbelts.  This is hardly implausible, as
people may perceive themselves as protected, and as fewer states would
pass seatbelt laws if aurbags were mandatory.