A new study confirms that newer airbags designed to be less hazardous to children and small adults are indeed safer for young children, without putting adults at greater risk.
The first generation of air bags, built to protect an average-size male, “have been lethal for children and adults in some crashes,” Dr. Carin M. Olson of the University of Washington in Seattle and her colleagues note in the July 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Second-generation air bags developed to deal with this problem were included in most cars built in 1998 and nearly all passenger cars of subsequent model years, they add. These air bags include depowered air bags, which inflate with less force, and advanced air bags.
Concerns have been raised that depowered air bags could be unsafe for larger people, and may “represent a tradeoff between decreasing the risk of death for some occupants and increasing the risk for others, such as unrestrained adults,” the researchers note.
To investigate, Olson and her team analyzed data from fatal accidents occurring between 1990 and 2002 involving passenger cars of model years 1987 to 2003, including a total of 151,297 people and 62,333 cars. Second-generation airbags were installed in most autos of model year 1998 and in all in later years.
Overall, compared to no air bags, first-generation air bags reduced the risk of a front-seat occupant's death within 30 days of a crash by 10%, while second-generation air bags reduced the risk by 11%, the researchers found.
For children under age 6, first-generation airbags increased the risk of death by 66% compared to no air bags. There was a 10% increased risk of death among young children with the second-generation air bags compared to no air bag, which was not statistically significant.
There was also no evidence that second-generation air bags were less safe than first-generation air bags for any subgroup of car occupants, including men not wearing seatbelts, the researchers note.
They conclude: “Consumers, policy makers and manufacturers can be assured that the increased safety of second-generation air bags for children was not offset by less protection for older occupants.”
