THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 2, 1996 TAG: 9611020318
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 86 lines
Chrysler, Ford and General Motors have asked federal safety authorities for emergency permission to switch to air bags that inflate more slowly, seeking to reduce the risk of neck-injury deaths among infants, children and short adults when air bags inflate at up to 200 mph.
The automakers also said Friday that they will send letters to the owners of 22 million cars with passenger-side air bags in the United States, warning that the devices can kill and injure children.
The companies said they would begin installing less powerful air bags within months in cars sold in Canada, where no government permission is needed for the change. They also said they would work harder to teach adults to keep children in the back seat.
Since 1990, 28 children, including infants, have died when they were struck by passenger-side air bags, which are only now coming into common use. Safety officials say the number of such deaths is likely to rise rapidly unless something is done, because passenger-side air bags are nearly universal on new cars now.
But the officials stressed that more than 1,100 lives had been saved by air bags since they came into more common use. The automakers said that they had no research on how much the slower air bags would cut the casualty rate, but that they thought slowing the inflation speed of bags by 25 percent would help. They also said the bags would probably not reduce the safety factor for average-sized adults, for whom they were designed.
The slower air bags would be very similar to the ones used today, but with less of the explosive propellant that inflates them. They are not expected to cost any more than the current ones. Switching over will take some time but the first ones could be on the road in Canada in a few months, said Andrew H. Card Jr., the president of the American Automobile Manufacturers Association, who represented the companies.
But the automakers cannot use them in the United States until the standard is changed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Card said Friday that their education campaign would teach people ``how to sit in the car, how to buckle up, and how to respect an air bag.''
Card, who was transportation secretary in the Bush administration, said he had approved the air bag rules now in force. They are based on protecting a 165-pound man of medium height who is not wearing a seatbelt and who is in a car that is in a frontal collision at 30 mph.
At the time Card approved the regulations - on Dec. 14, 1992, he recalled Friday - only about 15 percent of front-seat passengers were using belts, but now the number is about 67 percent. In Canada it is 90 to 95 percent, he said.
An air bag that opens 25 percent more slowly would provide the same level of protection to belted occupants, Card said, and a study of ``real-world crashes'' of unbelted occupants, the depowered air bags would have been sufficient, he said.
According to safety engineers, the current air bags can injure babies in infant seats that keep them too close to the dashboard, or children who are wearing the lap belts but slip the shoulder belts behind them. The air bags may hit some short adults too hard and too high.
``The injury that smaller-statured individuals seem to die of mimics a hanging,'' Card said. ``Basically it's a broken neck.''
He said the three auto companies would write to the owners of all 22 million vehicles with passenger-side air bags and remind them not to seat children or infants in the front, and would put more warning labels in new cars, beyond the ones already used, which are often tucked away on the sun visors or in a part of the passenger compartment visible only when the passenger door is open.
The National Transportation Safety Board recently called for better labels and an education campaign, and predicted a sharp increase in the number of children killed by air bags as they became standard on the passenger side.
In the long term, safety experts want ``smart'' air bags that would sense the stature of the person in the passenger seat, and vary the inflation rate accordingly. But ``it's not likely that a breakthrough technology will be on the market until well into the turn of the century,'' Card said, because of the need for testing.
A spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tim Hurd, said the companies' petition would be answered ``soon,'' but he would not elaborate. Ricardo Martinez, the agency's administrator, said he applauded the industry for sending letters. MEMO: This story was compiled from reports by The New York Times and The
Associated Press. ILLUSTRATION: Color AP Graphic
Air Bag Safety
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KEYWORDS: AIR BAGS ACCIDENTS CHILDREN by CNB