Commentary

So You Think That Air Bag Makes You Safer?
In high-velocity crashes it probably does, but here's a case that suggests consumers need more facts about the subject

1/2/99

Lawrence Baron

Today, the public might think it is better informed about air bags than ever before. Sadly, it is not, as revealed in the troubling story of Norma Swanson.

In October, I represented her in a lawsuit, Norma Swanson V. Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., that was tried in U.S. District Court in Portland. Swanson had been blinded by the passenger-side air bag in a 1994 Nissan Altima.

It happened three nights before Christmas in 1995. She was riding in the front passenger seat of her car as a friend drove it over a curb, activating the air bag. The low-speed bump did no other damage.

Although Swanson was properly seat-belted with the seat haifway back in the seat track, the air bag broke her nose, gave her a concussion and left her blind for six weeks. She regained the sight in her right eye but still is legally blind in her left.

The air bag had been designed to strike the occupant while still inflating at speeds up to 159 miles per hour. This was contrary to the basic underlying premise of air bag technology for more than 25 years - that is, that an air bag be fully inflated before the occupant falls into it.

The driver in Swanson's vehicle was completely uninjured. His air bag had tethers - internal straps designed to restrain the bag from striking the occupant. The passenger-side air bag that struck Swanson failed to incorporate tethers.

To date, at least 24 individuals have been significantly injured by the 1994 Nissan Altima passenger-side air bag. Most victims have been women and children, and most injuries involve significant anatomical damage to the eye, including blindness.

Swanson's injuries could have been avoided. She purchased her Altima in 1994 specifically because the vehicle had a passenger-side air bag and because she thought it would better protect her two young children.

It was not until 1996 that the public learned for the first time that air bags presented a danger to children and shorter women. Had Swanson known this, she never would have purchased the vehicle.

Although the public is better educated today about air bags, many misconceptions remain. For example, most people do not know that air bags come in a variety of designs, many of which are clearly better than others. Here are examples:

• Dual deployment thresholds. Most cars in America are designed to deploy in frontal crashes equaling the severity of a crash into a wall at 8 to 12 miles an hour. However, studies from
• Europe and Australia suggest that air bags tend to cause, more than prevent, injuries when the severity of the collision is less than 18 miles an hour. Thus, certain BMW and Mercedes models will not deploy in crashes under 18 miles an hour, provided the occupant is seat-belted.
• Tailored gas flow. The rate of gas release into the air bag can be tailored, depending on the severity of the collision. The lower the speed of the collision, the less the need for a fast inflation.
• Tethers. As already noted, tethers can make a significant difference between injuries and no injuries.
• Top-mounted vertically deploying passenger-side air bags. Generally, top-mounted air bags (that is, air bags installed on the top of the dashboard) tend to present less risk of injury to occupants, provided seat belts are used.
• Shoulder strap pretensioners. They enhance the safety of air bags. A pretensioner yanks the slack out of the shoulder strap portion of the seat belt. It prevents the occupant from falling too far forward into the path of the air bag.

Air bags have saved at least 3,448 lives between the late 1980s and Sept. 1 of this year, according to the National Highway Traffic SafetyAdministration. Nonetheless, because the public remains uninformed about air bag issues, the agency is considering a petition from several consumer groups seeking to require auto manufacturers to provide better information about their air bags. Besides including facts about the aforementioned designs, this information should include the velocity of the air bag, the excursion distance of the air bag and the number of injuries associated with the air bag.

Support for the petition for fuller disclosure should be sent to Admmistrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 400 Seventh St S W Washington, DC 20590.

Lawrence Baron is a Portland air bag lawyer. The Norma Swanson Nissan air bag injury suit was settled out of court on Oct. 23 after the trial had already started. She is back at work as a property manager in Beaverton and remains visually disabled.