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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!mmm!schley
From: schley@mmm.UUCP (Steve Schley)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.auto
Subject: Re: airbags
Message-ID: <398@mmm.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 13-Jan-86 13:42:58 EST
Article-I.D.: mmm.398
Posted: Mon Jan 13 13:42:58 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 14-Jan-86 05:50:07 EST
References: <294@frog.UUCP> <408@gcc-milo.ARPA> <761@unc.unc.UUCP> <1163@mtx5a.UUCP> <472@eneevax.UUCP> <581@sigma.UUCP>
Reply-To: schley@mmm.UUCP (Steve Schley)
Distribution: net
Organization: 3M Company, St. Paul, Minn.
Lines: 42
Keywords: belts 'n bags.
Xref: watmath net.politics:12952 net.auto:9071

In article <581@sigma.UUCP> bill@sigma.UUCP (William Swan) writes:
>In article <472@eneevax.UUCP> hsu@eneevax.UUCP (Dave Hsu) writes:
>>In article <1163@mtx5a.UUCP> mat@mtx5a.UUCP (m.terribile) writes:
>>>I do.  I want my three-point harness.  I don't want a system that will knock
>>>me away from the controls 
>
>I was involved in a wreck a few years ago in which I was wearing my seatbelt.
>I was rear-ended and pushed into oncoming traffic. I had just enough enough
>time after impact to haul myself back upright (my seat had collapsed from the
>
>Without a belt, I would have gone out the rear window. With a bag, I could not
>have regained control quickly enough to avoid a head-on collision. 
>
First off, Bill, in a rear-end collision, I don't think an air bag
would have been triggered.  So the situation would have been no
different, bag or no bag.

Even if it had gone off, your only knowledge of the fact would have
been a loose, deflated bag laying in your lap, and maybe the memory of
a muffled "bang".  These things inflate AND DEFLATE in a small fraction
of a second!  Tests have been run where volunteer drivers have had
their bags remotely triggered while they were driving, and no one lost
control, died of fright, were blinded (even momentarily), or had any
interference with their driving.  They reported that they heard a
noise, and the next instant a deflated air bag was on their lap.  They
didn't even see it inflated, it happened so fast!

So, if it had been inflated, you would not have been "knocked away from
the controls" or affected at all.

All of you people who are "bag-ophobic" should treat yourselves to a
little reality-expanding trip to the library, where you can learn the
truth about some of life's little complexities.  Like air bags.

And of course, keep wearing those three-point restraints (quaintly
called "seat belts").  I, too, am looking forward to another layer of
protection, and I think air bags provide this additional protection.

-- 
	Steve Schley

	ihnp4!mmm!schley