Anniversary Of A Life-saving Innovation In Cars - The Airbag

By Author: Adam
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Hedrik's patent was granted in 1953. It was not until the late 1980s that airbags became a standard feature when Chrysler began to incorporate them into its models. By the early 1990s most cars were being manufactured with airbags to protect the driver and, within a couple of years, this had been extended to the front passenger seat.

30 years ago, the first series-production car equipped with an airbag left the Mercedes-Benz assembly line after 13 years of development time for the first driver airbag at Mercedes-Benz. According to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the airbag has saved more than 28,000 human lives in the USA to date. Since October 1992 a driver airbag has been standard equipment in all passenger cars bearing the Mercedes star. The NHTSA states that when compared to an occupant not wearing a seat belt in a vehicle with no airbag, the statistical probability of fatal injury with an airbag and seat belt is 61 percent lower.

Modern cars are getting safer with protective systems that are becoming more and more intelligent:

* Belt tensioners improve the protective ...
... effect of seat belts
* Multi-stage airbags respond according to accident severity
* The control systems for these onboard safety features now have the processing power of the 'supercomputers' used in space exploration 25 years ago

Despite the large number of lives saved, as well as continuous improvements to these protection systems, sceptics still occasionally pose the question whether the airbag can also be dangerous. Numerous studies have shown the effectiveness of airbag systems since their inception.

One study conducted by the NHTSA published in January 2009 documents the following facts:

Since their introduction, airbags have saved a total of

* 28,244 lives in the USA
* 23,127 drivers of whom13,999 were not wearing a seat belt
* 5117 front passengers of whom 2883 were not wearing a seat belt

All safety experts agree that the airbag can never be a substitute for seat belts. It is only in conjunction with a seat belt that it becomes an optimally coordinated system that demonstrably makes a major contribution to the prevention of severe or fatal injuries to the occupants during serious accidents.

Today, there are two types of airbag of airbag in use. The frontal airbag is built into the area in front of the driver and passenger and protects from a frontal crash. Side impact airbags protect the vehicle occupants from a side impact. In 2006, Honda became the first manufacturer to install airbags in motorcycles.

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