From: utzoo!decvax!cca!hplabs!hao!menlo70!sytek!zehntel!teklabs!ucbcad!ARPAVAX:CSVAX:npois!npoiv!harpo!duke!unc!smb@sri-unix Newsgroups: net.auto Title: Re: Cool air on bags Article-I.D.: unc.3815 Posted: Mon Aug 16 14:14:54 1982 Received: Sat Aug 21 02:20:11 1982 A few factual items on airbags: a) NO ONE -- not Ralph Nader, not the government -- suggests replacing seatbelts with airbags; they're held to be complementary systems. It is indeed recognized that airbags don't do much good except in head-on collisions. Furthermore, an individual who is not properly located in the passenger compartment -- i.e., not in one of the standard seats -- faces some risk of injury from the airbag; wearing a seatbelt automatically means you're safe from that. b) Studies of the cars that do have airbags show that they have a fairly good reliability record; there are very few false triggers. c) More is known than one might guess about the types of accidents that can occur to folks who don't wear seatbelts. Certain injuries essentially *never* occur to people who do wear them. d) Yes, there are risks in having airbags; there are also a few (a *very* few) accident situations where seatbelts do more harm than good. But those are quite rare; statistically speaking, you're far better off with seatbelts, and with airbags, than you are without them.