Passenger side airbag - Read this!!!!!!!!

Ok, so, the airbag and the body don't make contact? Or is it...One's going toward the rear, and the other toward the front, simultaneously, yet one contacts the other as the other awaits contact but doens't contact the forward progressing body....I'm confused. ;(

 

I was always under the impression that air bags were installed to help protect the people that are too stupid to wear there seatbelts.

 

Belts and bags are designed to work in conjuction with one another...

 

I have freinds that have kids, but only have pick up trucks with pass. side cutoff switch. It is easy to say --the kid shouldn't be in the front seat, but reality of peoples vehicle choices and kid situations says different...Hence one reason cutoff switches were installed in the first place---they were not installed to track your car...

 

My belief is that my track car, with 6 pt harness, has absolutely no reason to have airbags. It is just a waste of money and an additional hazard if I happen to tap somebody a little too hard.

ferrari-doc...It wasn't all that confusing, just a distinction without a difference? what I really don't understand is, why is it so important to read? save that kind of alarming title for something like....baby born with prancing horse shaped birthmark!

 

I dont understand the veheminant idea that having a safety switch is a bad thing... In a two passenger car you should have it, period. I believe the biggest issue in regard to the kids is the rear facing child safety seat which has no bearing on the recline of the seat. The child will be decapitated if the airbag deploys. I would be carefull giving such reckless advice on a public forum. While your points about impacting the bag etc. are well informed and true, saying that the switch is not neccisary or the bag itself is not neccissary is a bit far fetched 'doc.

 

Let’s just think this through for a minute. As an automotive engineer I’m sure you would agree that in most accidents the driver hits the brake before the impact.

Right?

Well, let’s take it from there:

A child, being smaller, is less lightly to fit perfectly into a front seat than an adult. He/she is more likely to slip under the shoulder strap during the braking period and be in line to catch the inflating airbag as it deploys. The impact of the airbag (the older ones came out at about 200 m.p.h.) into the child, now folded in two and right by the dash, can snap a neck and send a small head into the back seat/window. A light child is also more likely to fool the inertia reel safety belt mechanism (used in some cars) and, even with the shoulder strap in place, end up within 12 or 18 inches of the airbag is it springs out of the dash.

Right?

In other words, the safety systems to which you are referring have been largely designed for the benefit of adult humans, not dolphins, Tang pottery or children. Thus the conditions under which they are often deployed can render them deadly to the younger members of the population. As for pushing the seat all the way back, well, often the only reason you have a kid in the front is because the back seats are already full and there is no other place! You can't put the seat all the way back - the rear passengers have legs!

I have had air bag switches installed into a couple of cars - because I trust my own judgement.