The Advancement In Protection That Airbags Provide

It really is hard to believe but there was a time not too many decades back when seat belts of any type weren't even mandatory in vehicles in the US Great Britain and Canada. In fact it was consumer activist turned “occasional presidential candidate” Ralph Nader who was the voice that took on the big three American automobile companies and successful lobbied congress to make them mandatory.

No Mandatory Seat Belts Until the Early 1960's

The truth be told however, is that on their own seat belts in a high speed crash can themselves be dangerous. You see seatbelts are only designed to “restrain” the occupants, not to shield or pad them in a crash. So it was about two decades back that airbags were first installed in vehicles and they have been going through advancements ever since.

The Very First Air Bags - Greeted By a Skeptical Public

The very first advancement to airbags very first airbags was in fact information. You see believe it or not, in the beginning people had to actually be convinced that the airbags were safe. Rumors abounded after the first crash reports started to come in that included burns and even broken noses and ribs inflicted by the deploying air bags.

Todays More “Cooler” Deploying Airbags

You see the air bags themselves are inflated on impact by a sudden chemical reaction. (A small explosion). It takes some .30 milliseconds (a finger snap) for the sodium azide contained in the bag to be converted to a gas. Most all chemical reactions that happens that quickly are going to have an exothermic by product (exothermic = gives off heat) but today’s improved air bags now contain another chemical to neutralize the heat.

The Passenger Side Safety Switch For Children & the Elderly

Another advancement is today’s automotive airbags is a simple on & off switch for the passenger side. This is meant for small children and the elderly. There is just no getting around the fact that an bag inflating at that speed, (a finger snap) will bring with it a certain measure of force. For children and the elderly this amount of force can break ribs and inflict serious facial injuries even in a low mph crash.

Safer In Town & Safer Out On the Freeway

So for driving about town, parents and passengers now have the option of flipping a switch on the dash that deactivates the passenger side air bag. However; out on the freeways & highways, in the balance, it's still statistically a heck of a lot safer to flick the switch back on, due to the probability of any impact, if there were to be one, would be a high mph crash.

Today’s Safer Compact Fuel Efficient Vehicles