Air bags can injure forearms, hands, face---
but most injuries are mild

ANN ARBOR---Air bags harm nearly two-thirds of drivers incrashes in which an air bag inflates, but most of the injuriesare minor cuts, scrapes and bruises, says a University ofMichigan researcher.

"As more vehicles have been equipped with steering-wheel airbags, crashes involving their deployment have occurred withincreasing frequency," says Donald F. Huelke of the U-MTransportation Research Institute (UMTRI). "Most of theresulting injuries are abrasions, contusions and smalllacerations of the upper extremity, face and torso areas."

In his analysis of 540 "air bag" crashes, Huelke found that38 percent of drivers suffered forearm and hand injuries and 32percent received facial wounds. More serious injuries are rare,he adds, with 2 percent of drivers sustaining eye injuries fromair bag deployment and 3 percent suffering forearm and handfractures, either by direct contact from the deploying air bag orby the air bag flinging drivers' forearms and hands into theinstrument panel or windshield.

According to Huelke, gender and stature have little bearingon the likelihood of forearm or hand injuries, but women andshorter drivers are more likely to receive facial wounds from aninflating air bag.

Nearly 42 percent of the female drivers in the samplesustained facial injuries from a deploying air bag, compared withabout 24 percent of the men. Likewise, half of the drivers under5'5" received facial injuries, while only about 18 percent ofdrivers 5'11" or taller suffered facial wounds.

Huelke says that drivers who wear safety belts are no morelikely to be protected from facial injuries than drivers whodon't.

"This is probably due to the fact that the deploying air bagcontacts the driver's face before the lap-shoulder belt has itsfull effect in limiting the driver's forward movement," he says."Also many drivers, particularly those of short stature, are inthe air-bag deployment envelope before the crash."

Finally, Huelke says that untethered air bags, which areballoon-like when fully inflated, are more likely to cause facialinjuries (44 percent vs. 27 percent) than tethered air bags,which have a flatter surface, but are no more dangerous to adriver's forearms and hands than tethered air bags.

UMTRI researchers Lawrence W. Schneider, Ryan Gilbert andMatthew P. Reed collaborated with Huelke on the research.