To view something awesomely strange...
In 1994 Uncle Al wrote a poorly received essay on automotive air bags' hazards. They were Official safety devices but Uncle Al said they were killers! Heavy nylon fabric deployed at 250 mph via explosive decomposition of sodium azide (toxic as potassium cyanide, and as water-soluble) seemed like a really bad idea, burst eardrums to whole faces torn from their moorings. The US Department of Transportation opined 43% of all air bag deployments caused serious injury - 163,000 people needlessly hurt logged a mere year later (Consumers' Research 78(5) 31 (1995)).
DOT disclosed danger to children strapped into Federally-mandated car safety seats (about 60 killed by air bags) and to "small" females (couple of dozen ladies and mothers protected to death). One would be hard pressed to identify another safety device with like track record of serious injury and death all to have been avoided if there had been no $2500 pair of "safety" devices at all. Race car drivers do not use air bags. Doing 200+ mph at Indianapolis is dangerous enough without further augmentation.
What is more hazardous than an automotive air bag deploying in your face at 250 mph after a 10 mph fender bender? According to CNN as of 24 February 1998: "Safety agency checks million GM, Chrysler air bags. Bags deploy during routine driving." I bet those drivers were surprised, don't you? Some lived to tell about it, hence the scandal.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was mildly put out to be stuck studying air bag systems on some 780,000 Chevrolet Cavaliers and Pontiac Sunfires built by GM in the 1996 and 1997 model years and about 375,000 Dodge and Plymouth Neons built by Chrysler in model year 1995. The stats included 194 complaints of the "safety devices" deploying while motorists were simply driving. Included were 10 crashes and 53 injuries in 96 cited complaints re GM Cavalier and Sunfire. 98 consumer complaints documented Chrysler Neon air bags deploying to cause 13 crashes in which 28 people were injured.
(The obvious solution is a second set of air bags behind the first. If the main guns explode at an inopportune moment presaging otherwise fatal injury, then the second set will save you, mostly. If the second set spontaneously erupts... OK, put in a third set as backup, and a fourth.)
Further investigations involve other GM cars plus several models of Subaru, Mazda, and Volvo cars. Other GM autos are the 1996 Chevrolet Lumina, Chevrolet Monte Carlo, Buick Regal, Pontiac Grand Prix and Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. About 396,000 of those vehicles are on the road. Drive with a smile!
The agency also opened a preliminary inquiry into other Chryslers - 1994 Dodge Caravan, Plymouth Voyager and Chrysler Town & Country minivans. There are about 500,000 of them on the road.
Anybody who argues that a safety device killing and injuring more people than it Officially saves, by an order of magnitude or two, is no safety device at all is unquestionably unqualified to render judgment. A Liberal is somebody who helps others using your money and then gets his expense chits covered. Who would deny that society would be a better place in which to live (certainly a less expensive one) if idiots (nature and nurture - no discrimination here!) were allowed to vote themselves a Darwin Award? (Said award being granted for the person or persons who most benefited humanity by permanently removing themselves from the gene pool.) Five million private motor vehicles purchased each year (guess who is exempt - city, state, and Federal) at $2500/air bag system is a mere 12.5 billion dollars out of pocket expense for you and me. Add sales tax, annual license and registration fees, and auto insurance fees all based upon purchase price. Are we having safe fun yet?
In 1998 we had a safety device that has cost consumers aggregate fees exceeding $100 billion, that has protected to death a hundred and more children and "small" females, that has by its safe and certified nominal operation alone injured hundreds of thousands of people.
780,000 Cavaliers, Sunfires 375,000 Neons 396,000 Luminas, Monte Carlos, Regals, Grand Prix, Cutlass Supremes 500,000 Caravans, Voyagers, Town & Country minivans --------- 2,051,000 vehicles
2,051,000 vehicles on the road are capable of willy-nilly exploding their air bags at random, just for the Hell of it. Does that put the adventure back in your driving? Getting stuck in an hour of rush hour traffic will never again be boring. BOOM!
Imagine a drug force fed to 65 million people daily. It is Officially credited with saving about 1600 lives and has killed at least 96 who would otherwise be alive. No HMO would pay for it. The FDA would ban it in a fat second, with fanfare. Why do you swallow it?
To return to Uncle Al Outrage Central, click here
To view something awesomely strange...