New vehicles may have good airbags and offer allround protection, but a survey has found that wearing a seatbelt is still the best option.
New vehicles may have good airbags and offer allround protection, but a survey has found that wearing a seatbelt is still the best option.
The study, published in the this month, found that seatbelts reduced the possibility of death during an accident by 65 per cent, while driver airbags alone were associated with an eight per cent reduction in death risk. The study did not look at the effects of passenger and side airbags.
“While driver air bags offer some protection against death, seat belts offer much more protection,” said the study’s lead author, Dr Peter Cummings of the University of Washington in Seattle.
Cummings and his team based their conclusions on records of US passenger vehicle crashes between 1990 and 2000. They looked at more than 51 000 accidents involving someone in the front passenger seat, in which the driver, passenger or both died.
In general, driver air bags appeared to provide more protection for women than men – which is surprising, the researchers say, as there have been reports of short women being killed by the force of deployed air bags. As a possible explanation, Cummings speculated that men, who are usually heavier than women, may more easily “overcome” the cushioning of the air bag and strike the steering column.
*Note: Most airbag systems are designed to be used in conjunction with seatbelts, apart from some systems used in the US. Secondly, some newer, so-called “intelligent” airbags, change the extent of deployment depending on the size of the seat occupant and severity of the impact.
Front passenger-side airbags have been found to be dangerous to babies and small children, and many cars now feature a deactivation switch for use when a (rearward-facing) baby or child seat is used up front.
How often do you buckle up when on the roads?
