Re: Air Bags

[Mark Badger <mark@steinberg.net>]

> a) Overall, airbags are a "good thing", having saved some 1600+ lives
> at a cost of around 50 extra deaths.


what is less reported is that in most of (i believe it's 56 of 61)
deaths attributed to airbag deployment in the usa, the person killed was
not restrained by a seat belt. therefore it's a matter of speculation
what would have happened to them had their deployment of the airbag not
killed them.

in most of the 56 cases the person was against or inches from the air
bag container as it exploded (as far as they can tell). i believe that
51 of the 56 were children, and that 26 were not in car seats. the
others were in unsecured car seats in the front.

like many public arguments in the usa, one has to look very carefully at
the protagonists, their points of view, and the statistics they are
basing their arguments on.

it ends up being that something like 10 adult deaths were attributable
to the deployment of the air bag....50 of the child deaths were
attributable to the parents involved.

m