Consumer Safety

Smart air bags The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) credits air bags with saving 4,342 lives in the United States from 1986 to June 1999.

While that figure is impressive, the air bag isn't perfect. During the same time period, the force of deploying air bags has killed 141 people. NHTSA reports that 80 children were killed by air bags in the six-year period from 1993 to 1998. Many killed by air bags, both children and adults, were not restrained by a car seat or seatbelt when death occurred.

In an attempt to reduce the number of deaths and injuries caused by front air bags, NHTSA issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would require "smart" air bags to be installed in some new passenger cars and light trucks by Sept. 1, 2002, and in all new cars and light trucks beginning Sept. 1, 2005.

Reportedly, a smart air bag has the ability to deploy differently depending on the occupant - adult or child, belted or unbelted. Additionally, NHTSA is calling for smart air bags to minimize risks to infants in car seats.

“A smart air bag's deployment can be tailored to the size of the occupant and the circumstances of a crash,” a NHTSA report states. “This is the next 'quantum leap' in frontal crash protection and is within reach because of the unprecedented growth and intense competition in the air bag and automobile industries.

“In fact, smart air bag systems were installed by some manufacturers in model year 1999,” the report concluded.

Ford Motor Co. is one manufacturer that has begun installing the smart air bag on some of its models. Ford credits the smart, or dual-stage, air bag as one reason its 2000 Taurus received the federal government's highest frontal crash-test rating, five stars, for driver and front passenger safety. Taurus was the only mid-size car to achieve this rating for the 2000 model year.

To work correctly, a smart air bag is just one piece of several complex components. An official Ford statement about the 2000 Taurus reads, “The advanced restraint system is a collection of a dozen components that allows the car to 'think' about the crash, 'understand' its severity, 'examine' the driver seat position and if he or she is wearing a safety belt, and 'decide' how to deploy the safety systems. With the system, dual-stage air bags inflate at two different rates depending on the situation as described above.”

Descriptors such as “think,” “understand,” “examine” and “decide” explain why the next generation of air bags is being called smart.

In addition to the Taurus, smart bags have been installed on the 2000 models of the Honda Accord; BMW 5- and 7-series sedans, and the 3-series sedan and coupe; Mercedes-Benz S-class and CL coupe; and the Acura TL. Additionally, the 1999 Acura RL had a dual-stage air bag on its passenger side.

Side air bags According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), head injuries are the leading cause of death in side impact collisions. For this reason, side air bags with head protection are increasingly popular as either standard or optional equipment on passenger vehicles.

While just 12 percent of all automobiles have side air bags, such protection is available on 46 percent of the cars in the Wall Street Journal's 2000 list of the 50 safest cars.

Side air bags are not all created equal, however. Some cushion only the chest area of the front seat occupants, while others cushion both the head and torso. Front side air bags are installed either in the seats themselves or in the door. To be effective, those in the door must be larger to account for different seat positions.

Last October, NHTSA issued a statement that children sitting near a side air bag are in danger of sustaining serious or fatal injury. Consequently, some manufacturers have decided against rear-seat side air bags at this time. Others, though, including General Motors Corp., are installing rear-seat side air bags based on crash tests that show they do provide additional protection for children so long as the children are properly restrained by a car seat or seatbelts.

Another type of side air bag is the inflatable curtain (IC) system that inflates from the roof down and covers side windows.

One of the first vehicles to include this type of side air bag was the 1999 Volvo S80. Volvo claims that the IC in the S80 is designed to provide increased protection from head injuries for front and back seat door-side occupants.

“In a side impact, the IC, in 25 thousandths of a second, inflates a protective curtain that extends from the windshield pillar to the rear pillar. This protective curtain has been shown to absorb as much as 75 percent of the energy exerted by the head when it is thrown to the side,” Volvo states.

Since the IIHS has identified head injuries as the No. 1 killer in side impacts, the benefits of the IC as detailed by Volvo are extremely beneficial. In fact, the federal government estimates 600 lives could be saved every year by side curtains and air bags that offer head protection.

The IIHS, in collaboration with Ford, conducted two crash tests of Lincoln Town Cars, a 1999 model with a side air bag offering head and chest protection, and a 1998 model with no side air bag.

In both tests the cars were propelled sideways at 18 mph into a rigid pole. The pole was relatively narrow, so there was significant penetration into the passenger compartment of both cars.

Using a reference value of 1,000 to indicate the point where serious head injury occurs, the differences in the two cars was substantial. The test dummy in the car without the side bag registered a head injury criterion of 5,390 - more than five times the reference value.

In contrast, the head injury rating in the car with the air bag was 376, well below the injury reference value. Similarly, the chest and pelvis injury ratings were reduced in the car with the air bag.

“The side air bag with head protection makes this kind of crash survivable despite the severity,” IIHS president Brian O'Neill said. “The air bag restraint system should protect people in a range of serious side impacts in which there's intrusion in the area near an occupant's head, including two-vehicle crashes.

“Side air bags of this type are relevant to the recent public concerns about crash compatibility among different types of vehicles,” O'Neill said.

Technician Safety

Cautionary Measures If you or your technicians work on collision-damaged vehicles with un- deployed air bags, be careful to minimize any risk of injury. There have been cases of technicians accidentally deploying an air bag during servicing, recycling, dismantling or towing.

Following are just a few of the cautionary safety measures the Inter-Industry Conference on Auto Collision Repair (I-CAR) recommends when working with air bags. Of course, your first step to avoid an unwanted deployment is to locate the service manual and read the disabling procedures before repairs are started.

An air bag system should be disabled before starting repairs and service manual steps must be followed. Some common procedures include turning the ignition off and disconnecting and isolating the battery cables. Taping the battery cables will help to prevent accidental grounding. Other procedures include removing one or more fuses, waiting a specified amount of time before working on the system, disconnecting the backup power supply, and disconnecting wire connectors for the driver and passenger side modules. Shorting clips may automatically short pins when the connector is disconnected.

Note: Memory savers used to maintain power to computers when the battery is disconnected supply enough power to deploy an air bag. The air bag system is not disabled when this type of equipment is used.

After a deployment, a powdery residue will be present on and around an air bag. This keeps the bag from sticking to itself when packed and lubricates the bag during deployment. This residue may contain corn starch or talcum powder, but may also contain by-products of the chemical reaction that produces the nitrogen gas. This may contain a small amount of sodium hydroxide, a possible irritant.

Here are just a few of the cautionary measures to note during cleanup:

• Wear proper gloves, safety glasses or goggles, and a long-sleeved shirt.
• Avoid rubbing eyes, eating or smoking until hands have been washed with mild soap and water.
• Avoid kneeling or sitting on surfaces that have not been cleaned.

Other safety reminders include:

• Use the correct service manual.
• Store replacement air bag modules in original packages away from ex- treme heat, sparks and high electrical energy such as electric welders.
• Store modules in a clean, dry place.
• Always carry an air bag module with the trim cover pointed away from your body.
• Do not place a module on a floor or bench with the trim cover facing down.
• Do not apply electrical power to any part unless told to do so by a service manual procedure.
• Do not carry any system parts by the wire harness or pigtails.

Note: If the air bag warning lamp remains on or continues to flash, there are problems in the system. This does not mean the system is disabled.

One other important note: Do not use a DVOM to check air bag circuits unless directed to by the vehicle service manual. Randomly probing an air bag system may cause accidental deployment of an air bag and cause personal injury.

Many more air bag safety issues are discussed in I-CAR's "Restraints Program 1" course, which is part of I-CAR's new enhanced delivery series.

For more information on this class or other I-CAR courses, call I-CAR customer service at (800) 422-7872.

Switches

When the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published its final rule in 1997, it allowed automotive repair businesses to install air bag on-off switches in the vehicles of certain at-risk individuals.

Although NHTSA has specified an approval process for this service, the Automotive Service Association (ASA) recommends that its members and member shops not perform air bag deactivation or install cut-off switches. ASA believes shop owners could be held liable in the future for air bag deactivation or the installation of cut-off switches, despite assurances from NHTSA and liability waivers signed by the vehicle owner.

ASA is especially concerned about accidents that may occur after the sale of a vehicle and drivers other than the vehicle owner.

For more information, visit the NHTSA Web site at www.nhtsa.dot.gov, or ASA's Web site at www.asashop.org.

Salvage

Salvaged air bags remain a topic of debate in the collision repair industry. In 1998, ASA began advising its members not to install salvaged air bags in vehicles. ASA is concerned about risks to shop owners and passenger safety associated with the installation of non-deployed air bags that are recovered and reinstalled. While the use of salvaged air bags can reduce costs, ASA believes that shop owners could be placed at risk for installing these bags. Should a shop owner decide to install a salvaged air bag, ASA recommends that the owners inquire with his or her insurance carrier regarding coverage and increases in rates before installing salvaged air bags, and to get this information in writing.

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