Airbags Save Lives, May Sacrifice Eyesight
Compared to 25 years ago, today's motor vehicle occupants survive high impact collisions 32% more frequently thanks to the use of seat belts (primary restraints) and vehicle airbags (supplemental restraints). Believe me, I would much rather drive around with these devices in my car than without them. As with every safety system there have to be compromises. For example, above 50 mph seat belts are pretty useless in a head-on collision because the mechanics of the crash exceed the physical tolerance of the seat belt webbing. At low speeds an unrestrained front seat passenger is in grave danger if the airbag deploys. The airbag may cause more injuries than the crash itself.Five percent of motor vehicle accident victim injuries involve eye trauma caused by facial contact with a deploying airbag. With sudden deceleration the body is moving forward to meet the exploding airbag. That's right, exploding! The airbag inflates in less than 50 milliseconds - faster than a blink. The expanding gas used for rapid airbag inflation is generated by a small controlled explosion inside the dashboard.
Ophthalmologists from Brown University and Penn State University medical schools wanted to analyze the variety of eye injuries that occur in airbag-deployed collisions. They scoured over 9,000 records from a single metropolitain Level 1 trauma center between 1997-2005. They discovered 47 documented eye injuries.
Here's how the numbers broke down with the occupants of the 47 airbag-worthy crashes:
- 21 of 47 occupants did not wear seatbelts and 71% of them sustained serious eye injuries
- Only 76% of this group recovered 20/40 vision or better
- 14% of this group ended up legally blind
Meanwhile
- 26 of 47 occupants were wearing seatbelts and only 31% sustained serious eye injuries
- 96% of this group recovered 20/40 vision or better
- Nobody in this group ended up legally blind
So, now you have two reasons to wear your seatbelt: to protect your life after colliding with other vehicles and to protect your precious eyesight from your own airbag.
REFERENCE: Rao SK. Ophthalmology, March 2008, pages 573-576.
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Technorati Tags: auto, safety, airbags, eye, injury
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6 Comments:
Not happy with Seat Belts but are forced to where them according to Law and the Air-Bags caused
scaring and cuts to my friends arms. Nothing was ever told or explained about the gases coming from the Air-Bags.
my best friend was killed when the air bag in her suv deployed with sucha force it broke her neck
i had severe arm (inner wrists) burns from air bag deployment, both chemical and contact. I also had a rip/scar from my seat belt across my chest. But my children and i survived, unlike the guy who ran the red light and hit my car, he died. he had no seatbelt and no airbag.
Lets see minor scars and burn from an airbag or hitting the steering wheel and dash at full force. The equipment did the job that it was supposed to do it doesn't mean that they are perfect and harmless but the added seconds to slow your body and organs and down before the impact dramaticly increases your chance for survial of and auto accident. The stats don't lie since seat belt law and airbag your chance of survival has been greatly increased. I also have trouble accepting that an airbag alone broke that persons neck (no info given on the type of accident or if seat belts were worn!). Air bags are a supplament to seat belt and will cause a lot of harm if the belt is not worn.
Actually, as a firefighter with extensive training in new car technology and extrication, an air bag could potentially kill someone under certain circumstances.
#1. First and foremost, airbags are meant to work IN CONJUNCTION with seatbelts. They deploy at speeds of around 200mph- you wont notice, but most cars today have something that causes the seatbelt to tighten up just before the airbags deploy keeping you in a better position in your seat to lessen any impact with the airbag.
#2. In the rescue world we are taught to maintain a specific range of distance between us and the airbag. It SHOULD be taught to purchasers of cars equipped with airbags. That rule is as follows.. 10 inches away from the airbag (about the length of your forearm), 20 inches from the passenger side airbage (these airbags are larger to compensate for an assumed greater distance between the dash and passenger) and 5 inches from smaller side airbags.
3. Another piece of advice, the old rule of hands at 10 and 2 oclock positions on the steering wheel needs to be adapted to hands going to the 4 and 6 oclock positions on the bottom of the steering wheel. This keeps your forearms BELOW the airbag and reduces the liklihood that your arm will fly back into your face and cause facial injuries and arm injuries.
Airbags can and do cause some injuries, but the liklihood of surviving an accident is greatly improved and injuries can be greatly reduced when they are used properly.
I was in a one car accident last year. My teenage niece/passenger broke her nose and almost had glaucoma due to the pooled blood in her eye not wanting to drain...from my car's deployed airbags...I just had a bloody nose...probably because I'm taller than her. We both had seatbelts.
Her face looked nightmarish. We probably would have been ok in this accident w/o the airbags. It was definitely a heads up to me about airbags.
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