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Unit 5302 · 09-28-2002, 11:06 PM

I feel airbags are one of the single largest contributors to increasing vehicle and insurance costs.

Manufacturers are constantly crash testing their vehicles, and you'd think if they were worthless, the airbag systems would have been drummed out of cars long ago.

I've seen many schools of thought on how well airbags truely perform. From the NHTSA claiming airbags save like 50,000 lives per second in my home town which has a population of 20,000, to the other end of the spectrum stating airbags have saved maybe 1 life since inception of use.

The latter group was very convincing with their use of math. Side impact airbags are worthless in my opinion. Think about this. If you're hit at 20mph from the side, you've already hit the door before the airbag can fully deploy. 20mph equals about 360" per sec. Or, right around .015 seconds before you hit the door. So, the lovely airbag actually delivers a brutal punch to your body. As you fling into the door, you're met by a rapidly expanding airbag to blast you back the other direction (this is what would be a knockout punch in boxing). I've seen the crash tests affirming the scenerio. Watch how the dummies are flinged back towards the center of the vehicle. I've also seen the crash testing at 35mph showing the airbag deploying in time to "save" the crash dummy before he hits the steering wheel. What happens when the speed is increased to 50mph, and the new safer airbag designs are used? Do you get a crash dummy headbutting a rapidly expanding airbag?

Personally, I've seen some very significant accidents where people without airbags have walked away, and I'm not inclined to believe airbags are the true safety devices they're made out to be.

I would rather not have them in my car, and have it cost $3k less. Interesting, but that would also get rid of the need to track airbag data, and the data logging devices which are definately controversial.

09-28-2002, 11:06 PM	#3
Unit 5302 Registered Member Join Date: May 1999 Posts: 5,246	I feel airbags are one of the single largest contributors to increasing vehicle and insurance costs. Manufacturers are constantly crash testing their vehicles, and you'd think if they were worthless, the airbag systems would have been drummed out of cars long ago. I've seen many schools of thought on how well airbags truely perform. From the NHTSA claiming airbags save like 50,000 lives per second in my home town which has a population of 20,000, to the other end of the spectrum stating airbags have saved maybe 1 life since inception of use. The latter group was very convincing with their use of math. Side impact airbags are worthless in my opinion. Think about this. If you're hit at 20mph from the side, you've already hit the door before the airbag can fully deploy. 20mph equals about 360" per sec. Or, right around .015 seconds before you hit the door. So, the lovely airbag actually delivers a brutal punch to your body. As you fling into the door, you're met by a rapidly expanding airbag to blast you back the other direction (this is what would be a knockout punch in boxing). I've seen the crash tests affirming the scenerio. Watch how the dummies are flinged back towards the center of the vehicle. I've also seen the crash testing at 35mph showing the airbag deploying in time to "save" the crash dummy before he hits the steering wheel. What happens when the speed is increased to 50mph, and the new safer airbag designs are used? Do you get a crash dummy headbutting a rapidly expanding airbag? Personally, I've seen some very significant accidents where people without airbags have walked away, and I'm not inclined to believe airbags are the true safety devices they're made out to be. I would rather not have them in my car, and have it cost $3k less. Interesting, but that would also get rid of the need to track airbag data, and the data logging devices which are definately controversial.