Concerns about air bags
One of the readers who called to express her agreement with
out March 21 editorial questioning the safety of automobile passenger-side
air bags expressed the dilemma many young American families now
find themselves in.
She owns a late model car, for which passenger-side bags were
federally required and which dealers are forbidden to tamper with.
She has two children, ages 3 and 5. Given that passenger-side
bags - all designed for adults, not children - have been shown
to harm or even kill children rather than protect them, the front
passenger seat is wasted space when she is transporting her two
children, who must ride in the back seat. Her new car has been
reduced to a three-passenger vehicle.
Owners of new one-seat pickups, quite popular in this part
of the country, don't even have the option of moving their children
to the back, away from the dangerous, exploding bags.
For adult front-seat passengers, air bags seem to do more good
than harm. Car owners without children may indeed prefer having
them.
But many Americans need the option of disconnecting the passenger-side
bag if they're transporting children. That's a federal mandate
that ought to be changed.
If you'd like to voice your opinion, write the National Transportation
Safety Board, Attention RE 10, 490 L'Enfant Plaza East SW, Washington,
DC 20594.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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