BG,

I'm sorry, your logic is simply flawed when it comes to "if you wear your seatbelt, an airbag is worthless comments". The caveat of except in rare conditions is invalid as no one can plan an "accident" let alone control the impact force and its distribution over a very short period of time.

You may ask why I feel qualified to say this, well, that's simple, my wife crashed our no air bag 89 244 at 55MPH with a properly fitted seatbelt (no air bag in 89). The result was potentially lethal as she suffered a hangman's fracture of the neck, she had to be resuscitated twice due to brain swelling shortly after the crash. She also beat the 95% death probability of the neck injury and fully recovered after six months. The one thing that still sticks in my mind to this day was when her neurosurgeon said: "If that car had an air bag, she would have walked away with no injury". And yes, she was wearing the seatbelt properly!

Why would the neurosurgeon say such a thing? There is a simple answer, she only had one impact bruise with the dash, her left knee and the bruise was dime sized. Her head never touched the steering wheel or dash, the force of the impact was simply so severe that her brain slammed into her skull at the moment her neck broke.

Now, lets do our homework and determine exactly what an airbag does... it absorbs impact, in particular (if the driver is wearing a seatbelt), of the head that is moving forward at an incredible rate of speed with an incredible amount of force, the airbag is there to spread this impact force out over time so that the shock impact is lessened by distribution over time. There is no doubt in my mind that if that car had an air bag, she would have been able to walk away, beyond that, if she hadn't been wearing her seatbelt, her carcass and remains would have been found fifty feet in front of the car.

Think about it, assume your head weighs 16 pounds, just like a bowling ball, now do the calculations of the stress put on the neck and head if that 16 pound bowling ball is unsupported during a 3mS long impact that changes your forward motion from 55MPH to ZERO. I have "crunched" the numbers and the resulting G-force of the impact that the head/brain experiences lives in the 3 to 4 figure G range.

I am encouraging you to reconsider your view of air bags as the government hasn't mandated cranial retention belts yet! Perhaps if enough folks understand the good that airbags do, cranial retention belts won't be mandated by the gov't on cars in the future!

jorrell
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92 245 250K miles, IPD'd to the hilt, 06 XC70, 00 Eclipse custom Turbo setup...currently taking names and kicking reputations!