January 17, 1997Air bags are lawsuit waiting to happen
By HARRY FRANKEN
Who do you sue if you are zapped by a safety device?
How many suits will there be by people who have been injured by automobile airbags? And what about the people who have died in airplane crashes becausesafety systems have failed and left pilots with no way to start doing the jobthey once did?
A number of years ago I was suspicious of those good will advertisements thatappeared in newspapers and magazines about the safety of air bags. There werepictures of smiling people of all sorts - men, women, various races, young andold. I even believe there may have been a few children shown.
The message below the picture was that all these people had something incommon. They were alive because the car in which they were riding at the timeof an accident was equipped with air bags.
I wondered who decided that they would have been dead if the car did not haveair bags. How could anyone know that they would have been killed if they hadbeen involved in the very same accident and there had been no air bags or theair bags hadn't deployed? After all, people have been thrown out through thewindshield, gotten up and walked home.
Who were the researchers? Who paid them?
If you are interested in learning something and the research you sponsor turnsout the way you expected, you announce it. If it turns out the other way, youmay ignore it, file it away or hire another researcher.
While I was suspicious of the research, I never guessed that air bags might bekillers. The first hint of this came in some stories in an automobile fanciers'magazine that were given to me by my son.
A few months later the newspapers picked up the stories and suddenly thesafety people were telling us that airbags exploded outward with exceedingspeed and force. They said to keep children out of the front seats of cars withair bags and, if you happen to be a short person, to put extenders on thecontrol pedals so that you can sit as far back from the air bags as possible.
I am not a short person, but I still have a problem. Most of my passengers arechildren. Sometimes I have three or four in the car. I have paid additionalmoney to buy a car with air bags, which I don't want, and now I shouldn't putchildren in the front seat.
I have a station wagon. Some times they ride in the middle seat and peoplethink I am their chauffeur. Some times they sit in the rear-facing back seatand get a view of where they have been. This is good if I don't want to bebothered by them. It is bad if I want to be carrying on a conversation withthem.
I may be wrong, but I would just as soon not have the air bags. The law saysmechanics can't disconnect them. The law says the manufacturer had to put themthere.
While wondering about these things and waiting for some one to file a lawsuit, which probably wouldn't end up in a state court, I have found that myworries were expressed a long time ago by Dr. Bill Smock of the Class of 1981at Centre College.
I keep up with things at Centre because I happen to be a member of the AlumniSociety. It offers me a lot of good information and fellowship, although itcannot offer a chance to buy hard-to-get football tickets. I have ignored myalma mater that determines the location of your seat in the stadium on thebasis of how much money you have given the school.
Bill Smock carried on a two-year battle at Centre College to have smokedetectors installed in all student dormitories. It was a successful battle.After he graduated he went to medical school and is now an assistant professorin the University of Louisville's emergency medical department.
He has seen instances where air bags have caused major head and chest trauma,broken bones, blindness and death.
"The public has to be warned that they have a bomb in their car,"he says. "An air bag is an explosive device that comes out with 2,000pounds of force. I hope we can educate the public and reduce the number ofinjuries."
Before he went to Centre, Smock worked as a volunteer firefighter. He saw aperson die in a fire. That's one of the things that led to him trying to getsmoke detectors at Centre.
He even missed a spring break at Centre because there was a shortage on thevolunteer fire department. Instead of going home he stayed at school so therewould be fire protection in Boyle County.
I also admire Smock because he happens to be an aviator. He also helped for aparachuting club at Centre. He made 80 jumps before being grounded by his wife.
If a guy is willing to jump out of an airplane and air bags scare him, thatconvinces me that he has something worth talking about.
They may make the bags safer, they may let me get rid of mine, but for thetime being I still am stuck with some minor back seat drivers.
It won't be me, but I suspect too, that someone will end up in court.
Harry Franken is a former newspaperman who now works for the Supreme Courtof Ohio.
Copyright 1997, The Daily Reporter