
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, December 27, 1994                   TAG: 9412270127
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

STUDY SAYS CARS' AIR BAGS MAY LEAD TO RISKY DRIVING

Drivers whose cars have air bags may cause more crashes than drivers without them because the added protection emboldens them to take risks, a study suggests.

The study of 206 fatal Virginia crashes in 1993 concludes that drivers with air bags were disproportionately responsible for multicar accidents and placed their passengers at greater risk than did other drivers.

The study by Virginia Commonwealth University economists George Hoffer, Edward Millner and Steven Peterson will be published next fall in the Journal of Law and Economics.

``What it suggests is that air bag drivers are driving in such a manner as to offset the effectiveness of the air bag,'' Hoffer said. ``They think technology will bail them out.''

He said the study ``is not a diatribe against air bags. Air bags are good. ... If you don't change your driving habits, you're clearly safer with an air bag.''

Hoffer said the study analyzed accidents involving 1990-1993 model cars, 43 percent of which had air bags.

In fatal crashes involving an air bag-equipped car and one with no air bag, the driver of the air bag-equipped car was responsible 73 percent of the time, Hoffer said. Of 13 single-car accidents in which passengers but not the driver died, nine of the drivers had air bags.

At the center of the study is a theory of ``offsetting behavior'' pioneered 20 years ago by University of Chicago professor Sam Peltzman. The theory suggests that people adapt to safety improvements by taking more chances. Peltzman edits the journal in which the study will appear.

Kim Hazelbaker, senior vice president for Highway Loss Data Institute in Arlington County, said she hasn't seen the new study, but rejects the offsetting-behavior theory.

``We find no credibility in that argument whatever. Safety research from all over the world has shown that that's not the fact,'' she said.

Others support the concept.

``We have concluded that offsetting behavior is real and should be included in the policy-making process'' for auto safety, said Edward Harper, a senior economist with the Virginia Department of Taxation.

by CNB