Automotive airbags did not appear in U.S. vehicles until the 1970s. Wikipedia tells that passive restraint regulations began in 1989 and the 1998 regulation required dual front airbags. U.S. regulations are designed to protect a passenger not wearing a seat belt, which is different from European regulations. Consequently U.S. airbags are bigger than European counterparts.
An airbag must deploy quickly to protect an occupant, and a common design uses Tetrazole, which produces nitrogen gas when ignited. (The bag must be inflated in less than 1/20th of a second.) Tetrazole is an expensive component, so Takata attempted ammonium nitrate. The problem was that long-term exposure to heat and humidity reduces the chemical stability and inflators have ruptured.
As you might expect, Florida has the most Takata-airbag incidents in the U.S., according to WFTV. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration tells that 37 million vehicles equipped with 50 million defective Takata airbags are under recall.
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They are expensive. CarBrain tells that airbag replacement for both front bags could be about $3,000. Of course, if your vehicle has side airbags, the cost is even higher.
So how effective are they? Again, from HTSA, From 1987 to 2015, frontal air bags saved 44,869 lives. The bags are deployed in moderate to severe frontal crashes, corresponding to to hitting a solid wall at 8-14 mph. They would deploy if you crashed into a similar-sized automobile at 16-28 mph.
Okay, I am convinced airbags are a good thing. Airbags are an example of a 'good' government regulation. Perhaps we need an accompanying regulation requiring less costly replacement. The automotive industry currently has no motivation to reduce costs for airbag replacement.
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