Vehicle Safety: Seatbelts And Airbags

Seatbelts and airbags are used for vehicle safety to protect humans who are driving or are in cars. This was not a large issue in the middle of the 20th century, but by the mid 1960’s vehicle safety got brought to public attention due to many books being published about it. Ralph Nader’s “Unsafe at any speed” made vehicle safety a large controversy which brought the issue to Congress, which then caused President Lyndon B. Johnson to sign two bills in 1966, ordering specific safety features on all vehicles. And now every car, SUV, and truck in the United States must have an airbag at least for the driver and seatbelts for every seat, to protect them from fatal injuries during an accident. It might not seem like it but there is a lot of science

They increase the amount of time it takes for the subject to hit a hard surface which decreases the amount of force in which the object hits the dashboard or steering wheel. “An airbag consists of three main parts: 1) An airbag module, 2) crash sensors, and 3) a diagnostic unit” (safemotorist). The airbags are placed in the areas that you are likely to collide with upon impact with another car, telephone pole, tree, etc. The sensors tell the airbag when the vehicle has crashed into another object and need to deploy. It is extremely important to wear a seatbelt even if your vehicle is equipped with airbags. Airbags do not deploy in all circumstances and are only effective if used in conjunction with safety belts. If a vehicle is hit from the side or in the rear of the car the airbags will not deploy, leaving the passengers only able to rely on their seatbelts to protect them in the situation. Airbags reduce the risk of a fatal injury in a frontal crash only, by around 30%. This still leaves room for the safety belt to protect you, as long as you are wearing

These areas are called crumple zones and they exist on the outside of the passenger cabin to protect them from major injury as much as possible. These zones are effective because of two important reasons; they reduce the initial force of the impact, and they redistribute the force before it reaches the passenger