ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 10, 1997 TAG: 9704100043
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: CATHERINE STRONG ASSOCIATED PRESS
The average discount for a car with dual airbags is $15 a year on a premium exceeding $750.
Janet Garman is afraid to drive a car with airbags.
The loud bang of an airbag during a 1992 accident left her ears extremely sensitive to noise, she says. So she took matters into her own hands and disconnected the airbags on her new car.
But Garman forgot to tell her insurer, which was giving her a $24-a-year discount because the car was equipped with airbags.
``If they want to charge me that, that's fine. But it galls me,'' said the Barrington, Ill., woman.
Eric Stork, 70, of Arlington, Va., said he was concerned about his wife's safety, not auto insurance premiums, when he had both airbags disconnected on a new car.
``I would disconnect the airbags on any car, that's the first thing I would do,'' said Stork, an auto emissions consultant. The elderly don't ``have the physical strength of younger people ... when an airbag hits them at 200 miles per hour.''
The auto insurance industry has long promoted airbags by offering discounts. But now a public backlash against airbags, coupled with a Clinton administration proposal to make it easier for drivers to disconnect them, could lead insurers to rethink those discounts.
Airbags, once touted as a risk-free feature that could spare the lives of thousands of Americans in head-on collisions, are now a source of worry for many, especially the elderly, short people of all ages, and parents of young children.
But by the end of this year, airbags will be mandatory in all new cars. They are credited with saving more than 1,800 lives, but they also are blamed for the deaths of 38 children and 24 adults, often in low-speed accidents they should have survived.
Just last month, the government gave automakers the go-ahead to install less powerful airbags in new cars. And the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is still refining the plan to give drivers the option of deactivating airbags.
Joseph B. Groner, director of corporate relations for Allstate Insurance Co., an early promoter of airbags, said it's questionable whether companies will keep offering discounts ``if airbag deactivation becomes prevalent.''
From the insurers' perspective, ``identifying vehicles with disconnected airbags will not be easy,'' Groner wrote the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The dollars at stake are not huge.
Although Garman got a $24 discount, the average discount for a car with dual air bags is $15 a year on a premium exceeding $750, according to figures from the industry and state insurance commissioners.
``People don't realize how little the discount is. It's just not that much,'' said Jon Laskin, a State Farm agent in the nation's capital.
It is illegal for anyone other than the car's owner to disconnect an airbag. The proposed rule would let drivers sign waivers and get it done at auto shops and dealerships.
Federal safety officials also are exploring the idea of allowing cutoff switches for airbags in vehicles already on the road.
The downside is insurers might have to eliminate the discounts altogether, said Kenneth D. Schloman, an attorney for the Alliance of American Insurers, which represents more than 250 insurance companies.
That ``would penalize those policyholders who choose not to disconnect,'' he told federal regulators.
But for Eric Stork, this isn't a matter of dollars and cents. ``I care about life and limb a great deal more,'' he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 linesby CNB