Smaller dummies test smarter air bags

BY JANET L. FIX
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON: A new family of crash dummies soon will be taking some big hits to prove the safety of new air bags that the government said yesterday must be installed in U.S. cars and trucks starting in 2003.

The job of the crash dummies -- designed to replicate a short woman, an average-size man, a toddler and a child -- is to reduce the number of children and adults killed by air bags.

So far, 92 children and 66 adults have been killed in low-speed and otherwise survivable crashes by the very air bags mandated by Washington to save their lives.

The package of air bag improvements and crash tests unveiled yesterday by Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater aims to end those unnecessary deaths. A cornerstone of the plan is a series of crash tests using child, infant and small-sized female dummies never before required.

Some consumer groups say the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration should be acting faster. They also warn that new and gentler air bags could leave unbelted men, who on average are bigger, at a higher risk of being killed in severe crashes when the bags prove too weak to restrain them.

Because the old air bags have decapitated and caused fatal brain injuries to children, the head of the child dummy will be placed directly on a dashboard in one test of the new system. Other tests will be run with crash dummies in odd positions that reflect how real-life kids and adults wiggle and slouch.

Slater said the new plan ``enhances the benefits of air bags and encourages innovation.''

It won't make air bags perfectly safe for children, especially if they are unbuckled, improperly buckled or sitting on the lap of someone in the front seat.

Slater and other safety officials stressed that seat belts remain the most valuable safety device in vehicles and said they should be worn at all times.

Advanced air bags will be ``safer, smarter and more efficient,'' said Roslyn Miller, acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which drafted the plan. ``But even redesigned air bags can kill or cause injury.''

Automakers already are redesigning and improving air bags. Some have used child-sized dummies in the past. Most are working on complex air bag sensors that can shut an air bag off if a bag of groceries were on the seat but power up to save an adult passenger. Eventually, sensors may deploy bags at a lower power in low-speed crashes and higher power in severe crashes, and adjust to how a person is seated.

The technology choice is up to automakers, but whatever their choice, the air bag must pass NHTSA tests involving child and small-female crash dummies. For the first time, the government also will require that vehicles be crashed into a wall at an angle, rather than straight on, to mirror the most common real-world crash.

Some tests will be done with belted dummies at 30 mph; others will be done with unbelted dummies at 25 mph. All tests will measure air bag performance by tougher injury tolerance levels than previously required.

A third of all new cars and trucks will have to meet the tougher standards starting with the 2004 model year; all must meet them by the 2006 model year. Starting in 2008, and ending in 2010, tougher test procedures will require crash tests at higher speeds with large male crash dummies.

Because the tests can't guarantee that air bags will be safe enough for children, bold yellow and black warning labels will be required in cars and trucks meeting the new standards.