The Good

• Airbags save lives. The truth is that many more lives are saved by airbags than injuries that are caused by them. An estimated 26,000 American lives have been saved by airbag deployment in the last 5 years.
• Airbags that have been installed later than March 1997 deploy at 25-30% less pressure than earlier models. This reduces the number of pressure related injuries.
• Airbags have been proven to prevent spinal cord injuries that can change a person’s life forever
• Airbags also help prevent whiplash and knee injuries that are common in auto accidents
• Many newer model vehicles come with built in sensors that automatically detect the weight of a passenger. This innovation has resulted in a lot less injuries, particularly for petite adults and child passengers.

The Bad

• Airbags are capable of killing children under 12 years of age (or adults of around the same height and weight)
• Older airbags can permanently damage your hearing. On deployment they explode at 170 decibels which is only slightly lower than a rocket taking off and much higher than a jet engine or shotgun blast.
• Ocular (eye) injuries are common with airbags, sometimes causing permanent loss of sight. This can be exacerbated when wearing sunglasses and cause disfigurement as well as blindness
• Chest and lung injuries are common with airbags when they deploy too close to the body
• When an airbag comes in contact with the body it can cause bruising and abrasions. This can be anything from a minor disturbance to permanently disfiguring facial injury.

Additional Legal Tools: Visit the law offices of Elan Wurtzel for more information on airbags.