In
a news story from November 1996 in the Baltimore Sun:
When
Susan Hayes skidded off the road into a drainage ditch in 1996, the
air bag in her Mazda Miata slammed into her head and broke her neck.
The 5-foot-2-inch, 29-year-old Baltimore woman spent six weeks in a
coma and eight weeks in intensive care. She was wearing a seat belt
in the crash.
It
was the air bag that caused her the most injuries. Her 4-year-old son
was in the front passenger seat next to her with a seat belt, but the
seat did not have an air bag option.
While
the risk that air bags pose to children has attracted national
attention, that danger has overshadowed the fact that bags also can
injure and kill adults, particularly short women.
 |
| Imploding airbag broke Susan Hayes neck |
The
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has warned for
some time that women, especially those over 70 who may be frail, are
among the adults most at risk of being killed by air bags.
Deaths
from air bags are also likely to be under-reported, partly because
the NHTSA has focused on reducing the deaths of children from air
bags.
Because
air bags are required to pass a federal safety test involving an
unbelted dummy representing a 164-pound adult male in a 30 mph crash,
air bags deploy with explosive force, even in fender benders.
The
air bags, which come out of the dashboard or steering column at 200
mph, have saved hundreds of lives, but the powerful devices also are
blamed for the deaths of at least 47 people who would otherwise have
walked away from their accidents.
You
can read more about short people and the challenges of driving here:
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