Vehicle Restraints and Airbags

Airbags should also be seen as supplemental restraint systems, designed to add additional protection to seat-belts in (primarily) frontal crashes over 13 kilometres per hour (km/h). While airbags have saved many lives, there have also been deaths attributed to airbags deploying in crashes that would not have been life threatening. Analysis of deaths involving airbags in the United States showed that nearly all of the people who have died from airbag related injuries were either unrestrained or improperly restrained.

Most of the deaths have been to children and adults of small stature. Airbags are a passive restraint system, deploying automatically in some types of crashes. If an occupant is unrestrained, or the vehicle has an airbag installed but no seat-belt, it is possible that the occupant may come into contact with the airbag before it has fully inflated. This is also the case for people who need to sit closer to the steering wheel as a result of their size.

Airbags deploy at approximately 300 km/h. Therefore, vehicle occupants should ensure that they are restrained regardless of whether or not a vehicle has an airbag installed. It is best for small children to be sitting in a child restraint on the back seat away from airbags!