Tests show side-impact air bags can save lives

Test crashes: The Volvo S80 in the top test is equipped with a side-impact air bag. The other test was conducted with the air bag deactivated and proved to be fatal

ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) -- Two rounds of tests have shown that air bags designed to protect people's heads can save lives in serious side impact crashes, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said Thursday.

In one round of tests, the front of a Chevrolet pickup truck traveling at 32 mph struck the side of a Volvo S80 traveling at 16 mph. The test was done twice: once with the Volvo equipped with side air bag head protection, and once without it. Two crash dummies were placed in the Volvo; one in the driver's seat and one in the rear passenger seat on the driver's side.

In the first instance, both crash dummies recorded low head impact because the air bags provided a cushion between the dummies' heads and the hood of the pickup truck, the institute said.

In the test without head protection, the hood of the pickup truck struck both dummies' heads. The force recorded on the head of the rear-seat dummy was enough to cause fatal injuries, the institute said.

The institute also performed tests in which the BMW X5 sport utility vehicle and Volvo S80, both equipped with side air bag head protection, were crashed side-first into poles at 18 mph. Crash dummies were again seated in the driver's seat and the rear passenger seat on the driver's side. In each test, the impact recorded on the dummies' heads was low.

	VIDEO
CNN's Ed Garsten shows the crash tests Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

The institute says almost 10,000 deaths occur each year in side impact crashes, and more than half of them involve head injuries.

Even a side-impact crash into a rigid object such as a tree or a telephone pole, a fairly common occurrence, at a low speed of just 18 mph is severe enough to kill passengers in vehicles without side air bags, the institute said.

Side impacts accounted for about a third of the nearly 32,000 deaths on U.S. highways in 1999, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Thirty-eight percent of all deaths from single vehicle side impacts involved trees or poles, it said.

CNN Detroit Bureau Chief Ed Garsten and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
  • IIHS News Release: December 14, 2000
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
  • Air bag information

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