Seatbelts Save Lives

[pecunium]

Which is something I am sure you all know (and if not, you can read all about it here, but for a really well written account of how it works in practice, Paul Cornell lawys it out with praise for wives, paramedics and the Ford Focus.

Comments

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I am worried about the airbags, a little, because of the dry lubricants (the "dust"). I have a friend whose sister died from an asthma attack induced by the airbag (it's how she acquired her Miata).

For myself, I'm not worried, but Maia has asthma... So far she's never been in an airbag accident (nor I), so we don't know how she'll be affected. It's rare, but knowing it's possible....

[martyn44.livejournal.com]

That's a very understandable concern. Both Cathie & Melissa suffer from Asthma (MJ quite badly) My experience of accidents - both first hand (unfortunately) and vicariously is that if it is bad enough to inflate the airbag, then without that safety feature you wouldn't be around to worry about your asthma.

It is an area where the old wives always know better than the experts. All I can say is that I wear a seat belt every trip and my car has airbags. Cathie wears a belt every trip. Our kids have always been strapped in and MJ just looked at me horrified when I asked if she would ever not wear a belt (she's the only one who has passed her test) I don't consider myself an expert, but I know enough about the numbers to make that decision. But that's me.

As I say, drive save, and I hope everyone near to you and around you - especially on the road - does too.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

The airbag is supposed to deploy at head-on velocities of 15 mph, or more. That's actually a fairly low speed (since it's combined energy which sets them off).

Maia's car has had the airbags deployed (it was while the car was lent to someone). They were struck by someone racing into a left turn, the combined speeds were probably about 25 mph.

When she and I were in a similar wreck, the bags (to our surprise), didn't go off).

I can't imagine not driving without belts (even in military vehicles). I'm happy to have the airbags, and hope to keep on not needing them.