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From: ddw@cornell.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Air Bags
Message-ID: <4721@cornell.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 27-Jun-83 12:17:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: cornell.4721
Posted: Mon Jun 27 12:17:35 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 28-Jun-83 20:30:42 EDT
Sender: ddw@cornell.UUCP
Organization: Cornell Computer Science
Lines: 27

From: ddw (David Wright)
To: net-flame

The Supreme Court ruled this week that the Reagan Administration was "arbitrary
and capricious" in revoking air bag requirements, since they had shown no good
reason for doing so.  What the upshot of this will be is of course unknown, but
my guess is that the DOT will suddenly discover oodles of good reasons for
deep-sixing the requirement.

Howls of protest from the auto industry to the contrary, air bags have been
quite extensively tested and worked well indeed.  GM had a whole bunch of cars
equipped with air bags out on the roads a few years ago.  They racked up many
millions of miles in thousands of cars.  This is from memory (I think I read
it in Consumer Reports) but during the entire test period, there were only
8-10 improper triggerings of the air bags, and all but one or two took place
while the car was being serviced.  One of the others was a passenger-side bag
that went off with nobody in the passenger seat.  Not sure about the rest, if
there were any.  As far as I know, the stories about hearing damage from the
noise of the bags inflating is are just that -- stories.  Also, with air bags
you don't need to wear a shoulder belt, although you do need a lap belt to
keep you in place, especially in side collisions where the air bag doesn't
do you much good.

                                 David Wright

                                 {vax135|decvax|purdue}!cornell!ddw
                                 ddw@cornell