Deadly by design without recourse

By Eric Peters Copyright 1998 Washington Times December 29, 1998

I believe in safety, but I don't believe in air bags - for the simple reason that no other safety device I know of has been proven beyond any doubt to be lethal in certain circumstances.

Yes, air bags can and do save lives. But they also kill and maim - and will surely do so again. More than 113 people have been slain by these devices since their introduction - and thousands injured, sometimes severely - a record that would incite lawsuits and government intervention under normal conditions.

But because air bags are a government-required safety feature - and because the government has invested a great deal of PR promoting them - there will be no lawsuits, no recalls, no mea culpas by the people responsible.

The bureaucrats who run the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have decided your life is worth being put at risk for some greater good of their imaginings.

Fewer people have been killed by exploding Pintos, "unsafe at any speed" Chevrolet Corvairs and side-saddle fuel tank GM trucks combined than have been murdered by air bags. Yet air bags continue to be required equipment all new cars and light trucks sold in this country.

I continue to marvel at the stunning double standard that allows our government to enact and enforce regulations that get people killed - absolutely, without the slightest doubt - while at the same time vengefully pursuing any private business even alleged to have cause a theoretical harm (Alar apples, Radon gas, silicone implants, Audi "sudden unintended acceleration," etc.).

Dwight Childs of Parma, Ohio, probably can't understand it, either. His 2-month-old son was killed by a deploying air bag in his 1997 Ford F-150 pickup. Though his vehicle was equipped with a cut-off switch that deactivates the bag, Mr. Childs forgot to use it. When he ran a red light and hit another truck, the air bag inflated as designed - and snuffed out the boy's life.

Without defending red-light running, the fact is Mr. Child's young son would be alive today had his father's truck not been equipped with an air bag. The Ford F-150 is a full-size pickup truck with a heavy ladder-style frame and enough bulk to protect passengers from harm without needing the bags.

In fact, air bags are really just a crutch to compensate for the inferior crash protection provided by the majority of today's downsized passenger cars - which have lost, on average, 1,000 pounds of mass since the 1970s.

And guess where downsized cars came from? If you said, "the government" - go to the head of the class. Federal fuel economy requirements force the automakers to cut weight (and thus safety), by using plastic and aluminum in place of heavy steel. The results are predictable.

Estimates vary, but the consensus is that approximately 2,500 fatalities occur each year in traffic accidents as a direct result of our government's policy of forcing smaller cars on the public. Had these victims been driving larger, safer cars, they probably would have lived.

Once again, we have a case where there is a provable correlation between a government regulatory requirement and deaths that didn't have to happen - but no remedial action is taken. Blank out. The ends - whatever they are -justify the means.

Dwight Childs was charged with and later convicted of vehicular homicide in the death of his son -the first known case of anyone being prosecuted for failing to properly use an air bag.

What's sick is that Childs' actions were inadvertent - he never meant to do any harm - while the actions of NHTSA as regards air bags are coldblooded and deliberate.

The agency knows - and has known for years - that air bags are potentially quite dangerous, not just to infants but also to women and anyone who is either frail or of small stature. Yet NHTSA thinks it has the right of Supreme Law Lord to gamble with your life and the lives of those you love.

Air bag roulette is what we get.

Safety glass, seat belts and padded dashes never harmed anyone. They are welcome additions to automobiles and I have no problem with them. But I resent having to purchase and subject myself - and my family - to an explosive device built into the dashboard of any new car or truck I wish to buy.

If NHTSA had any honor - or was interested in saving lives instead of saving face - it would admit there's a problem and rescind the air bag mandate.

Let the automakers offer them as optional equipment for those who think the benefits outweigh any potential risk. But let the rest of us opt out if we so choose.

That used to be the American way. Too bad it's not any longer.

Eric Peters is a nationally syndicated automotive columnist.

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