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Air Bag and Seat Belt Safety

Every year thousands of people are killed or injured in automobile accidents. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death of children. Each day eight children under age 15 die, and close to 1,000 more are injured in motor vehicle crashes. Use of safety seats and safety belts is the law in all 50 states. Yet, 60 to 70 percent of the children under age 15 who were killed in automobile crashes in 1995 were not buckled up.

Air bags help limit neck and chest injuries in frontal impact vehicle crashes. In fact, driver and passenger side air bags save hundreds of lives every year. Air bags save lives- more than 500 in 1996 alone. However, air bags are a supplemental restraint; they work best in combination with seat belts.

Air Bag Safety Tips

Air bags can inflate as fast as 200 miles an hour--faster than you can blink. In this brief instant, air bags can put anyone too close to the bags at risk, especially if they are not properly restrained. Federal regulations require air bags to inflate forcefully enough to restrain an unbelted dummy, the size of the average adult male(5'10" 175 pounds), in a crash test into a concrete barrier at 30 miles per hour. The test requires the air bag to restrain the force the unbelted dummy applies to the air bag. That force can be as much as 2000 pounds (a ton). By buckling up and applying air bag safety precautions, occupants in vehicles with driver and passenger-side air bags can help minimize the potential for injury.

Drivers should move the seat back as far as practical, while still maintaining comfortable control of the vehicle. Drivers should sit back as far as possible from the airbag.

Every adult should be properly buckled up and never allow anyone to slide a shoulder belt behind them.

Infants and small children should be secured in child safety seats that are appropriate for the size and age of the child and are properly secured in the back seat of the vehicle. Safety belts should be used for children that are too large for child safety seats. Children should never have the shoulder belt placed behind them.


Air Bag Safety Tips For Children
Infants should never be placed in a rear facing child safety seat in the front seat of a vehicle with a passenger-side air bag (unless the air bag can be turned off). An infant in a rear-facing child safety seat in the front seat is at high risk. If a crash triggers the passenger air bag, it will hit the the back of the infant seat with such speed and force that the infant is very likely to suffer serious or even fatal injuries.

If the front seat must be used for a forward facing child, move the seat back as far as it will go and make sure the child is properly restrained. All other small children should be secured by seat belt in the rear seat.

Larger children, typically over 12 years of age, are still safer in the back seat. If larger children are riding in the front seat, move the seat back as far as it will go and make sure the child is properly restrained.

**All information and illustrations obtained from Texas Department of Transportation, General Motors Company, and the International Association of Chief's of Police.**

This page was created by Officer Sha King of the Stephenville Police Department.
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©1997 Robert Holsonback