Always Slide the Seat Back and Sit Back! Buckle Everyone! Children in Back!

In 1996, our nation faced a highway safety crisis: 35 people, including 26 children, died from air bag related injuries in relatively low-speed crashes. Virtually all were improperly or completely unrestrained. At the time, there were approximately 22 million vehicles with front passenger air bags on the road and more than one million new air bag cars and light trucks were being added to the fleet each month. If immediate action was not taken, there could be hundreds of air bag fatalities - many of them children - in the coming years.

By 2000, the number of passenger air bags in cars, light trucks, and vans had more than tripled to 80.3 million. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigations show that air bag related fatalities dropped dramatically to 18 (including some fatalities still under investigation) in the year 2000. Air bags contributed to one child fatality for every 8.9 million passenger air bags in 2000 compared to one child fatality for every 870,000 passenger air bags in 1996, a reduction of 90.3%.

For drivers, air bags contributed to one fatality for every 17.6 million driver air bags in 2000 compared to one driver fatality for every 7 million driver air bags in 1996, a reduction of 60%. Perhaps more importantly, as of July 1, no air bag related fatalities have been confirmed for the first six months in 2001, although five are under investigation.

A June 2001 survey of 600 drivers, which has been regularly conducted since 1996, found for the first time that no drivers of vehicles equipped with passenger air bags report placing children from birth through age four in the front seat. Only 10% say they allow children 5-12 to ride in front of an air bag. However, despite what is reported, children are still being injured and killed because they are not properly secured in a back seat.

Behavior Changes

In 1996, many drivers and passengers were not aware of the risks of air bags or the proper precautions to take. The media, the automotive, insurance, and child safety seat industries, government, and many national organizations had begun to inform the public about the risks but greater action was needed.

Recognizing the risks that air bags posed - especially to children - auto makers, major insurance companies, occupant restraint manufacturers and the government decided that strong collective action was necessary. They created what became the Air Bag & Seat Belt Safety Campaign. The immediate goal was to prevent more deaths by urgently spreading the message that children should ride in a back seat. The longer term goal was to increase child restraint and seat belt use. Over time, both goals would save lives.

The Campaign was committed to using only those approaches proven to work. it developed a three-pronged strategy: educate the public on the benefits and risks of air bags, enact strong standard seat belt laws, and enforce child passenger safety and seat belt laws vigorously. The Campaign developed a short message - "Air Bag Safety Means: Buckle Everyone! Children in Back!" - that it delivered by generating news stories and placing ads. In addition, it developed partnerships with more than 150 organizations and corporations to help spread the message.

In the Spring of 1997, as part of its long term strategy to raise belg use, the Campaign created the Operation ABC Mobilization. It was the first nationwide high-visibility enforcement drive to increase child restraint and seat belt use. More than 1,000 law enforcement agencies in all 50 states participated in the first Mobilization. Today, after eight waves, the Mobilization has grown tenfold to 10,446 agencies in May 2001 and is credited with helping to reduce child fatalities and increase seat belt use.

Air Bag Improvements

For many years, vehicle and air bag manufacturers have been continually modifying air bag systems. Some improvements already are standard equipment in recent model vehicles.

• Reduced inflation power. By model year 1998, in response to changes allowed by NHTSA's air bag test procedures, manufacturers had reduced inflation power in both driver and passenger air bags.

• Crash sensors. Improved crash sensors distinguish between different crash forces and patterns and adjust air bag inflation levels accordingly.

• Inflators. Multistage inflators allow air bags to respond differently to different crash conditions. Manufacturers have installed them on some 2001 model year vehicles.

• Occupant sensors. Some new vehicles adjust air bag inflation levels depending on the occupant's seat location and restraint use. Manufacturers are researching more sophisticated sensors to determine an occupant's size and position on the seat.

Improvements in the rest of the vehicle also have increased occupant protection. Many seat belts now have pretensioners, which help remove belt slack in a crash and also have "load limiters," which reduce the possibility of rib fractures caused by seat belts and are designed to work in conjunction with air bags. Some vehicles have adjustable foot pedals so a short driver can sit further from the steering wheel.

2001: The Ongoing Challenges

Behavior changes and air bag improvements have reduced air bag related fatalities dramatically in 2001. But the problem is not solved. The 18 fatalities in 2000 were 18 too many. Several disturbing facts suggest that air bag related fatalities might start to rise again.

• Many of the air bag vehicles now on the road have older, higher-powered air bags that pose greater risks to occupants. These older air bag vehicles are moving to second and third vehicle owners who may not understand air bag risks as well as original owners.

• Even the newest air bags do not eliminate all risk.

• 2000 NHTSA data show 5% of adults who carry young children admit that they do not always restrain children. Four percent (4%) of infants under 1 year old, 9% of toddlers age 1-4, and 28% of children age 5-15 were observed to be unbuckled. Twenty-Nine percent (29%) of adults were not buckled.

• Knowledge of air bag risks is dropping. The proportion of people who know that air bags can injure occupants who are too close dropped from 85% in 2000 to 78% in 2001.

A Membership Organization
Dedicated to Protecting Life and Promoting Health
1121 Spring Lake Drive, Itasca, IL 60143-3201
(630) 285-1121; Fax: (630) 285-1315

Copyright 2001 * All Rights Reserved