Air bag safety pops into community's eye

Last week, members of the State College Optimist Club distributed pamphlets in an effort to educate the community on the proper use of air bags.

Stories of low-speed accidents around the nation that resulted in the deaths of small children due to airbag deployment led the club to launch the educational effort, which will teach the community about proper use of the safety device.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 32 children and 20 adults have died from injuries caused, in part, by airbags since 1990. Most of the accidents were low-speed. In many cases children were incorrectly situated in rear-facing child safety seats in the front passenger seat.

Airbags are designed to protect an unbelted 165-pound adult in a 30-mph crash. Children, smaller-framed adults and pregnant women are especially at risk of injury from airbags, which deploy at a speed of 200 mph, according to the NHTSA.

The Optimist Club became concerned with the issue of airbag safety after it was sent material concerning airbags in November and December, said Robert Barry, chair of the committee undertaking the project and also a Ferguson Township police officer. The organization also researched the problem before deciding to take action.

Optimist International joined Morton International, an airbag manufacturer, earlier this year in a national effort to educate the public on the correct way to secure children in cars.

"Car accidents are the No. 1 killer of children," Barry said. "More than 50 percent of the time, children are improperly buckled."

Barry was quick to add that airbags and seat belts do save lives, but extra care is needed to ensure safety.

The need to educate the public on "extra care" measures propelled the Optimist Club to teach the "ABCs" of airbag safety.

Club members distributed pamphlets to local child daycare centers and automotive dealerships which state "Always Buckle Children in the back seat."

This measure is one of the steps the NHTSA is promoting in its campaign to make airbags safer.

"The most important short-term goal is getting parents to put children in the back seat and always buckle them," said Phil Frame, spokesman for the NHTSA. "This takes away the danger of airbags to children completely."

In November, the NHTSA outlined a long-term plan for making airbags safer. The key points include:

• Depowering the speeds at which airbags deploy by 20 to 35 percent, which the NHTSA said might decrease injuries.

• Giving the public the choice to disconnect airbags after being informed of the consequences.

• Mandating the installation of "smart" airbags in all vehicles by 1999; they are currently found only in higher-line cars, such as the Mercedes-Benz. (Smart airbags can detect the height and weight of passengers and modify deployment speed accordingly.)

• Educating the public on the proper way to secure children in vehicles through warning labels and publicity campaigns.

However, Sandra Gordon, director of Children's Land Learning and Child Care, 278 Gerald St., and the mother of two young children, said regardless of increased safety measures, she is still pessimistic about the reliability of airbags.

"I think that airbags are probably less safe," she said, adding that although she doesn't have airbags in her vehicle, she would still distribute educational material about them.

"Anytime you're going to do something like that, you have to educate the community, the public," she said. "At least then it gives us, as citizens, the option."

Airbags have received a lot of bad publicity, but they still serve a valuable safety function, said William Cox, a member of the Optimist Club.

More than 1,500 lives have been saved since airbags first appeared in 1986, and there has been a 30 percent reduction in fatalities from head-on collisions, according to an Optimist Club news release.

Currently, there are more than 70 million vehicles with airbags in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

"I'm not an advocate of disconnecting airbags," Cox said. "I think that they serve a purpose."

Although Cox is not in favor of discontinuing airbag use, he said the safety measures proposed by the NHTSA sound promising.

"I'd like to see changes that make airbags more safe for everyone," Cox said.