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How airbags work: benefits, dangers and risks
How airbags work: benefits, dangers and risks
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Recommended: How airbags work: benefits, dangers and risks
Matt Martin
Mrs. Collazo
English 11
9 March 2014
Airbags Equal Safety
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary an airbag is, Airbags are used to cushion and protect drivers during the event of an accident, providing protection to the drivers’ body when striking interior objects such as sterring wheels or windows. Different makes and models of vehicles contain multiple airbag designs in various locations of the vehicle; including but not limited: to the driver’s-side, passenger-side, and also rear seating. Airbags deploy with the help of an internal sensor. This sensor sends a signal to the airbag based on the type, angle, and severity of the impact. Because there are many different types of airbags, each airbag inflates using these sensors when the signal of the sensor determines whether or not the impact was severe or moderate. Airbags, with limited success, first debuted during the early 1970s in passenger automobiles. By the late 1980s and early 1990s most cars were now equipped with the driver airbag, and a front passenger airbag.
The design of an airbag is theoretically simple; there is a central airbag control unit (ACU) which monitors numerous sensors in the skeleton of the vehicle, those sensors including, When it comes to the placement of the airbag itself and the inflation mechanism, these are both found concealed in a center holding compartment within the steering wheel or the dashboard, behind pliable plastic lappets which are designed to break open under the inflation force of the airbag. Once the pressure against the steering wheel or dashboard has been reached the central airbag control unit will activate air flow and inflate the fabric airbag within the compartment. Once the driver or passenger collides with t...
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...rospace industry and various aircraft’s and spacecraft’s. The US Army has also successfully been able to incorporate airbags as a landing system, in aircraft’s and spacecraft’s.
The United States government and the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards agreed to require that, Airbags and seatbelts meet the requirements of that standard. , said Mary Bellis from About.com Inventors.
In conclusion, it is safe to say that an airbag is much to be thanked for. An airbag used to cushion and protect drivers during the event of an accident, vary in type and location throughout a vehicle or source of transportation. Whether it be an inflatable seatbelt in a car, a frontal airbag on a motorcycle, or an airbag landing system on the outside of an airplane; we are sure to remember that as long as airbags are present we are less likely to become severely injured in an accident.
As with many things, breakthrough of any kind can be traced back to a mistake or a situation forcing people to think things through differently. The modern suspension of today’s vehicle is made of different components including those due to different circumstances. According to Motorera.com, a car crash that occurred when Alanson Brush’s brother wrecked his car, forced Alanson to rethink the suspension on the vehicle in order to make sure it could not happen again. Therefore he came up with the idea to add front coil springs along with shock absorbers. This was unheard of at the time and
Despite the many efforts that automobile industries have created, research has shown that many individuals disable these reinforcements although "seat belt use is the most effective way to save lives and reduce injuries in crashes" (http://www.cdc.gov/). Geller et al...
Many people may choose not to wear a seatbelt because they don’t understand how and why they work. To begin with seatbelts are the first line of defense one has against an injury in a crash.
chance of being thrown from the car even if their car has airbags. Not only are
Even though there are some statistics that may show a lower rate of injury or death if you wear a seat belt when in an automobile accident, I do not feel that the government has the right to make wearing a seat belt mandatory for adults because by making seat belts mandatory it takes away from our right to freedom of choice, and wearing a seat belt does not eliminate the risk of injury or death as people have been injured and/or killed due to wearing a seat belt Current seat belt law originated from federal legislation in the 1960s that made it mandatory for all automobile manufacturers to include seat belts in their vehicles as a standard feature. Originally, the purpose of a seat belt was not to protect the occupants in the case of a crash, but rather to physically keep them in the vehicle, as driving was bumpy business. However, in today’s times, mandatory use of a seat belt falls under various states purview. Each state implements its own laws regarding enforcement of seat belt use.
Fig. 6 © HowStuffWorks 2002. How Seatbelts Work [online]. Available at: http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/seatbelt-spring.gif [Accessed 17th November 2012
During side impact crashes, cars can potentially flip. Side impact crashes are said to be the most dangerous type of car crash. The rear facing seat is the best option during this type of crash. If the car flips the sides of the seats are better equipped to harness the child in the seat. The seat is able to make pivoting motions because of the attachments to keep the child in a straight line. Keeping them in a straight line reduces the risk of injuries especially in the spinal cord.By having their back straight it won't bend or come close to snapping. A rear facing car seat protects the child by using a 5- point safety harness which is a system of hooks even used for race car drivers, and flight pilots.This allows the child to stay In the seat without them fal...
Automobile accidents happen all around us. We see cars in the middle of the road after just rear ending each other. We see cars driving around town with big dents in them. Do you ever stop to wonder how car accidents happen? Physics; that’s how they happen. There are several aspects of physics that apply to automobile accidents.
Passive safety features aim to reduce the damage done to a car’s occupants in the event of a crash. These include things like seatbelts, airbags, and crumple zones.
Car accidents are the leading cause of death for people under the age of 35. Wearing a seat belt can prevent death in about half of these accidents. Did you know that every 15 seconds someone is injured in an automobile accident if they are not buckled up, or that every 13 minutes someone is killed in a crash. Failure to wear a seat belt contributes to more fatalities than any other single traffic safety related behavior. According to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration seatbelts saved nearly 12,000 lives in the United States in the year 2000. The NHTSA estimates that more than 9,000 U.S. car accident fatalities in 2000 would have been avoided if the victims had been wearing seatbelts. Sixty three percent of the people killed in accidents were not wearing seat belts. The NHTSA a...
The Supreme Court did not stop there, they continued to add more laws. “.new motor vehicles produced after September 1982 will be equipped with passive restraints to protect the safety of the occupants of the vehicle in the event of a collision” (Supreme Court). Now all new motor vehicles must have a form of passive restraint added to their vehicles before they can sell them to the public. The government hoped to protect more lives of young drivers who did not insist on wearing seat belts by making them mandatory and enforced by police officers. Since 1972, hundreds of thousands of teenage lives have been saved with this simple safety feature.
We have all heard the excuses before, “do I have to wear it? It isn’t like it’s going to protect me,” “it’s uncomfortable, I’m only going around the corner,” or “I’d rather be thrown out of the vehicle than to be stuck in a seat belt.” No matter how good of a driver you are, or you think you might be, there are always situations that are beyond your control. Such as, bad weather, drunk drivers, and road conditions. Sometimes, seat belts can be a life or death in an automobile accident. Not only is wearing your seat belt every time you get in a vehicle, but it is required by law in 49 states, with the exception of New Hampshire. Although seat belts are known to lock up and wrinkle your clothes, I believe that wearing your seat belt is beneficial because every fourteen seconds someone is injured in a traffic crash. Seat belts are not only known for holding you in place during a collision, but more importantly the are known to save the lives of the occupants in the vehicle.
The journey from that idea and the airbags that we have now has been very long. Today, airbags are a necessary in every car and are designed to act as an extra safety device aside of seat belts. But a lot of people are looking quite sceptical at the air bag safety, because there was a lot of accidents where the airbag didn’t react or it did react, but it didn’t help but killed the driver or the passenger. Since 1991 there was 238 counted just because of air
There is a massive amount of car accidents that occur every day, that consequently become fatal. In many cases, the driver and the passengers do not have on a seat belt to prevent them from being thrown out of the car or colliding with another car, causing them to be thrown against the dashboard or some other tragic accident. Some people may think, “Wearing a seatbelt isn’t cool”, “I’m only going down the street” or sometimes just irresponsibly forget to put on their seatbelt when they are inside of a vehicle. You may think that wearing a seatbelt is not trendy and you are only making a quick trip going down the street to the corner store, however, you cannot control others actions on the road anything can happen in the blink of an eye.
When it comes to cars, there are plenty of safety features incorporated by manufactures to ensure a smooth and safe ride. Some of these features seat belts, airbags, and antilock brakes. Nowadays, there have been great improvements to technology within cars to aid in the avoidance of collisions altogether. Examples of these technologies include blind spot detection, backup cameras, 360-degree cameras, and autonomous driving. Many of these newer safety features are there to avoid collisions. However, whenever a collision does occur, there is not much there to protect passengers in the rear of the car. Looking into this, there is evidence that shows that rear passengers do obtain injuries in collisions and pose the threat of contributing to others injuries. So, why are rear passenger airbags not standard in your vehicle?