The History and Mystery of Airbags

 By Catherine Powell

Image courtesy Pixabay

Ever since there were automobiles, there were automobile accidents.  Back before the turn of the 20th century, when motorized vehicles were slowly supplanting the horse and buggy, there were even some fatal accidents.  One of the first occurred on August 31, 1869, when Mary Ward was thrown from a steam-powered contrivance only to be run over by it.  Back then, steam, electric, and gas-powered vehicles were nothing like today's automobiles.  Few had doors.  Some had only three wheels.  None of the engineering used to develop early automobiles took safety into consideration.  While today's vehicles are far safer than they were when the first horseless carriages hit the road, that doesn't mean that they've stopped evolving.  In this week's blog, I'll take you through the development and evolution of the airbag.  

It's no accident that airbags are required equipment on all of today's cars, light trucks and motorcycles, but it literally took an accident to invent the first one.  That's because in 1962, an American industrial engineer named John Hetrick took his family for a Sunday drive in his 1948 Chrysler Windsor sedan.  While motoring through the wooded Pennsylvania countryside, he was forced to swerve his vehicle to avoid an obstruction in the road.  Unfortunately, he wound up driving his car into a ditch.  Fortunately, he, his wife and seven-year-old daughter weren't hurt. When they got home, Hetrick couldn't get it out of his mind that his entire family could have perished had he hit the obstruction head-on.  That thought led him to sketch the world's first automatic safety cushion that would deploy itself automatically if a spring-loaded sensor detected a sudden deceleration.  Although Hetrick patented his invention, he soon realized he didn't have the resources to develop it.  So, he pitched it to every car manufacture in the country, none of which took him up on his offer.

That didn't mean they didn't explore the concept further.  The problem was, back in the 50's and 60's, technology hadn't evolved to solve the issues involved with creating an effective airbag system.  To  protect a car's occupants, it was determined that airbags would need to deploy in as little as 40 milliseconds, which Hetrick's compressed air system couldn't provide.  And his mechanical sensors weren't sophisticated enough to tell the difference between a collision and a panic stop.  It took until 1967 for a mechanical engineer named Allen Breed to improve sensor technology and a Japanese car engineer named Yasuzaborou Kobori to develop an improved inflation system before airbags were ready for the road.  

However, at that juncture auto manufacturers weren't ready for airbags.  Until 1968 automobiles weren't even required to have seat belts.  In 1969 when the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration suggested adding passive restraints such as airbags to protect passengers and drivers who refused to wear seat belts, both Ford and GM balked by claiming airbags were unnecessary and impractical.  A spokesman for GM noted that airbags posed a safety threat to some of those the government sought to protect.  Early testing of airbag equipped vehicles produced at least one fatality that was suspected to have been caused by the airbag itself.

Image courtesy Pixabay

As a result, it wasn't until 1973 that GM rolled out its first car that came equipped with a passenger airbag: the Oldsmobile Toronado.  They later offered their air cushion restraint system as an option on 1974 Buick, Cadillac and Oldsmobile models.  The ACRS-equipped vehicles provided frontal protection for both the driver and passenger, as well as a driver's knee restraint and  two-stage deployment.  But it took until 1991 for Ford to make airbags standard equipment on all their vehicles.  Chrysler followed suit the same year. Jeep introduced the first Cherokee with airbags in 1992 and in 1993, Dodge Ram became the first pickup truck equipped with airbags. It took government intervention to require all cars and light trucks manufactured after September 1, 1998 to be equipped with airbags.

The following year, the NHTSA reported that more than 4,600 lives had been saved by airbags.  Things were looking up for automotive safety.  Then in 2003, some airbags produced by Japanese manufacturer Takata began to explode.  After one death was attributed to a Takata airbag in 2008, Honda recalled 4,000 Accords and Civics.  By 2011, they expanded the recall to include some 900,000 vehicles.   By 2015, more than 40 million vehicles had been recalled by 10 manufacturers who used Takata airbags.  Then came the lawsuits.  By the time the smoke had cleared, Takata was forced to pay more than $1 billion in damages to consumers and auto manufacturers after 63 million vehicles were recalled after the company admitted they had falsified test results showing their airbags were defective.  

How Safe Are Airbags Today

Even after the Takata debacle, while airbags weren't exploding, they were still causing the occasional death.  That's because airbags deploy with a force of up to 2,000 pounds at a speed of 200 MPH.  While they can save a life, if an occupant sits too close to a deploying airbag, injury or death can occur.  This means that children, pets, and those whose stature require them to pull their seats as far forward as possible could wind up being pummeled by the very devices meant to protect them.  As late as 2021, Audi was forced to recall 30,000 SUVs because of the potential of neck injuries to small children.  Shortly after that, the NHTSA issued a bulletin warning parents to never allow children under 13-years of age to ride in the front seat no matter the circumstances.  

Image courtesy Pixabay

After NHTSA admitted to using crash test dummies that were 5' 9" tall, they recommended all drivers maintain a safe distance of 7-10 inches away from the steering wheel to prevent injuries that can include contact burns, detached retinas, suffocation, and broken bones, as well as head, neck, arm, or chest injuries. If a driver must pull the seat further forward than the recommended distance, they suggested the installation of pedal extenders to keep face and chest the desired distance from the steering wheel.  They also recommended that children in car carriers be placed in the backseat in a rear-facing position to prevent injury.  

While airbags and seat belts have made driving vastly safer for drivers, every motorist needs to know that should another vehicle collide with theirs at 16 MPH or faster, the airbags will automatically deploy.  Don't let an invention meant to save your life take yours.  Make sure you understand the ins and outs of airbags before you climb behind the wheel.

Catherine Powell is the owner of A Plus All Florida Insurance in Orange Park, Florida. To find out more about saving money on all your insurance needs, check out her website at http://aplusallfloridainsuranceinc.com