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Automakers reach concensus on air bag improvements
November 15, 1996Web posted at: 9:50 p.m. EST
TORONTO, Ontario (CNN) -- Auto makers from around the world have reached a consensus on ways to make automobile air bags safer, agreeing to lower the speed at which they deploy in a mishap.
The Toronto conference, a reaction to deaths and injuries to front seat passengers by airbags, concluded Friday with automakers agreeing that the devices would be "depowered" in future vehicles, reducing the speed and force at which they deploy.
(695 K / 12 sec. Crash test QuickTime movie)
The participants agreed that the sled test proposed recently by the American Automobile Manufactureres Association is the preferred approach to achieve depowering of airbags, allowing it to occur quickly.
They also concluded that alternative approaches, such as raising certain crash-injury criteria, will not allow significant improvements in all vehicles and are therefore unacceptable.
Auto makers and government regulators want to find ways to make air bags safer. Air bags have been responsible for at least 39 deaths.
The two-day workshop was sponsored by the AAMA, the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, the Association of International Automotible manufacturers of Canada, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association of Canada.
Related stories:
- Report: Air bag caused death of fetus - October 30, 1996
- Government makes it official: Air bags can kill children - October 23, 1996
- Debate rages over air bags' risk to children - September 16, 1996
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