Parents' Group Blasts Auto Industry Over Air Bag Design

20 October 1997

         Publishes Book, 'The Air Bag Crisis: Causes and Solutions';             Opposes Senate Amendment to Weaken Safety Standards    WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 -- A group of parents whose children werekilled or injured by automobile air bags says proposed legislation eliminatingcertain types of crash test dummies from federal testing of the safety devicesis a "bad idea" that avoids "real world crash scenarios."    Robert Sanders, founder of Parents for Safer Air Bags, says legislation tobe introduced this week by Sen. Dirk Kempthorne, R-Idaho, which wouldeliminate unbelted dummies from federal safety testing, is "based on anerroneous premise" that air bags can't be effective for unbelted adults inhigh-speed collisions, while at the same time being safe for children in low-speed crashes.    In fact, Sanders says, different types of dummies -- in all differentpositions -- should be added to the testing procedures, including child andshort female replicas.    The parents' group is distributing copies of its new book, "The Air BagCrisis: Causes and Solutions," to members of Congress, federal regulators andautomakers.  The book urges the changes in federal auto safety tests.    Sanders says that loopholes in current testing procedures "have allowedthe less scrupulous automakers to market air bags that are inherentlydangerous for short women drivers and children."    After conducting extensive research into original documents produced byautomakers and others the parents' group concludes that the air bag crisis isthe direct result of an inadequate federal air bag test.  Some automakers aresatisfied to only meet the minimum federal requirements, according to theparents' group.    "As a result, they ignore the safer designs used by the more responsiblemanufacturers. These safer designs include vertical rather than horizontaldeployment, variable inflation forces depending on crash severity, highdeployment thresholds for belted occupants, and tightly tethered bags that donot extend too close to the occupant. What's needed is a strict federal testthat 'weeds out' vehicles with dangerously designed air bags," Sanders says.    As to the dangerous air bag systems already on the road, the parents'group urges the retrofit of the components in the air bag system: a redesignedcrash sensor that has a higher "trigger" and a redesigned air bag with shorterinternal tethers to keep the bag from getting too close to the occupant.    The group also supports air bag "on-off" switches as an interim measure,but says it is critical that consumers be provided with "vehicle specific"information about the design and safety record of each air bag.  "This willminimize the shut off of air bags that have a stellar safety record," saysSanders.    The manufacturers of air bag systems that do not have these featuresdefend their systems by saying that their systems meet the federal requirementof protection to the average-sized adult.  The parents' group counters thatthe statute that created the safety standards expressly states that thestandards are minimal and that compliance with them does not exempt amanufacturer from common law liability for using a dangerous and defectivedesign.    "The Air Bag Crisis: Causes and Solutions" attacks, with specifics andevidence, those automakers that opted for the less safe designs, forconcealing the dangers and failing to correct the defects in their systems.SOURCE  Parents for Safer Air Bags