[LMB] Airbags OT:

[Ed Burkhead]

It's a while since this issue blew up and I haven't watched it lately - nor
have I seen any new facts come out lately.

Paula writes:
> . . .the requirement imposed was to stop substantiative damage 
> to a large male not using a seatbelt... that those settings KILL 
> women my size, apparently wasn't considered important 
> enough as design consideration to occur... (that is, the 
> requirement got set WITHOUT bothering to pay ANY attention 
> to the EXISTENCE of small women, much less as -drivers-.

When this flared up, there was mention of something like 31 cases of small
people being killed by airbags in the period under discussion.

My memory, somewhat vague from temporal distance, is that in 28 of those
cases, the person killed had on no seatbelt so was pushed or leaned forward
before the airbag blew up in their face causing death.

The statement was made, as I recall, that had they been wearing their
seatbelts they would likely not have been injured.

The gist of the analysis I remember was that the fuss, while it made sense,
was way overblown.

Does anyone have handy facts available?

Ed