The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) released a report last month titled, “How Often Do Front Airbags Fail to Deploy in Fatal Frontal Crashes?” The study addresses safety questions that many consumers have regarding the devices which are intended to provide additional safety measures in vehicles during an automobile collision.
The report identifies two common problems with airbags – unnecessary and injury-causing deployment in low-speed crashes, and failure to deploy as intended.
The study focused on the latter problem and compiled data from two main sources. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) maintains a census called “FARS” on fatal crashes on US public roads in which death occurs. FARS data comes from police crash reports and contains information on airbag deployment if included in the report. NASS/CDS reports were another database source for the study.
A primary objective of the study was to “estimate the incidence of front airbag non-deployment in frontal crashes in which drivers or right-front passengers died.”
FARS data suggested that airbags failed to deploy in 18% of frontal crashes, and NASS/CD case reviews indicated non-deployment in 8% of the crashes.
Authors of the study made several conclusions based upon their research.
Conclusions relevant to the consumer include the following:
- The number of front occupant deaths with non-deployments is of concern
- Examination of airbag system components to determine the cause of non-deployments and countermeasures would be useful
- Continued monitoring of front airbag performance is warranted
