airbags

A bad ABS system is worse than none at all, the ABS in my Volvo is quite good and I've been pleased with it, didn't choose to have it, just discovered it was there after I bought the car, would choose it in the future if I could.

lol, usually modern ABS is quite good, except on gravel where blocking the wheels and digging is really the most efficient way to stop.

-Lasse

Aren't those airbags so "excessively powerful" to protect those who are too stupid to wear a seatbelt?

I've heard of airbags deplying from minor parking accidents (maybe early ones?) replacing the airbags, the steering wheel etc. and these days probably the seats and the ceiling is very expensive ...

-Lasse

They're only good for one impact. If you roll a car (or, more likely an SUV) without a seat belt, you'll do quite a bit of bouncing around inside the car. Or through the windshield.

With a seat belt, I've seen people walk away from a rolled Jeep. In fact, a co-worker drove hers away when her Jeep came to rest back on its wheels. Needless to say, roll bars help as well.

There have been "more than several" models of vehicle that have been recalled because of airbags detonating randomly... (including the previous-year-model of the car I drive :/) Having fired an airbag in an open space just to see what it's like, I'm sure I NEVER want to see it happen two feet in front of my face. I was raised in a country where it is normal practice to get in the car and put on the seatbelt as an atomic operation. I frankly don't believe the slight additional protection of an airbag (assuming a correctly seated and belted driver/passenger), is worth the risk.

As of 1997(?) North American-market cars are factory-fitted with "second-generation" airbags that have approximately 1/2 the inflation force of older first-generation airbags. I think it's likely you'll find the inflation pressure of airbags in current-year vehicles is pretty much the same worldwide.

One real problem, as it's been explained to me by people who work on these things, is that the collision sensors in the North American market are set to excessive sensitivity, because of laxly enforced and/or nonexistent seatbelt laws. (Worse still, this problem often propagates to other markets). As usual, an attempt to save people from their own suicidal stupidity results in injury to others.

Weirdest one I ever saw was a drunken bastard in an old Buick hot-rodding down Scottsdale Road (in that section between Cave Creek and Bell with all the dips).

Dropped a front U-joint and the drive shaft dug into the pavement right in the bottom of a dip.

Car did a pole vault and slid backwards on its roof for nearly a hundred yards.

The deceleration G's were such that the drunkard was pinned in his seat, and walked away with just a few scratches from falling to the roof when the car slowed down ;-)

Speaking of Jeeps, a co-worker of mine drove her Jeep thru a running wash... fortunately she was a good swimmer. The Jeep went in at 7th Avenue and stopped a few blocks from the 19th AVenue crossing.

...Jim Thompson

Mandatory-use-of-seat-belt laws are in the works in most states, even Arizona ;-)

...Jim Thompson

I saw a documentary once where the psychologist being interviewed opined that the only way to reduce the road toll dramatically was to remove all safety features and put a metal spike in the middle of the steering wheel, pointed at the driver.

Ken

And how will that work? Are they going to include a supplementary button which reads "I did something stupid. Slap me please!" BANG!

--Viktor

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No, remember, it's a psychologist's thinking - he is after behavior modification. If everyone had a spike in the steering wheel like that, they'd drive a damn sight more carefully!

Ken

It seems to me to be really stoopid to fiddle with something that your life is so dependent on. Like, didja ever think what the insurance company would say if they found out that you 'fixed' your airbag? Probably say, so long chump, you'll have to sue to collect!

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I was sued for $6k, and I along with the other parties, plumber, insurance company, etc, settled with the bastard for $3k. He pulled a setup, pretended to slip and fall, then they called the paramedics, claimed he hurt his neck. I was disappointed that the other parties were gonna settle, and not push for a court date. I call it legal theft. But that doesn't mean I don't have faith in the legal system. It still works, even tho some people manage to take advantage of it.

Well first of all you spelled stupid wrong, second of all, your life is not always "so dependent" on an airbag, a properly designed car that has a rigid passenger cage, crumple zones, collapsible steering column and other features that have been around for a few decades now will do just fine to protect the occupants without an explosive charged bag a foot from the driver's face.

What I don't understand is that I can pick up for example a '90 240 either with or without the airbag (it was optional at the time) and the model without the bag is perfectly legal to own, drive and sell, and I may add has a safety record superior to a great many new cars, yet if I get a model with an airbag and remove it, that's illegal. Well screw it, I'd disconnect it anyway and just never sell the car, or better yet, I'll just stick with ones that don't have it in the first place.

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Why ask why when it comes to government regs.... in california the state recycler will pay you for aluminum cans, but only if they have the state seal on them. V* Tomato juics has no seal, and the recycler will go through the cans and throw out the V* cans. Now is the Al in those cans somehow less important thant he Al in any other can? By throwing those cans out, the state is littering and doing everything they say we *citizens* can't or shouldn't do. It's all Bulls***. I deactivated my airbags after a friend of the family got his neck broken by one when it went off...

Indeeed, the north american airbags are bigger than those elsewhere. This due to the fact that in other countries you are supposed to be belted on additionally. Then the airbag can be designed smaller. But somehow legislation wasn't successful is reducing the american right to drive unbelted.

Rene

And yet school buses still have none.. They also stop before railroad crossings, which would seem to increase the risk of stalling out across the tracks, and have now strobe lights on top, that apparently are supposed to serve some purpose.

YOU can't put your kid in the middle of a nicely padded SUV for a 5 minute trip unbelted (nor should you), but the state can pick up your kid, and twice a day, cram them into a big can of unbelted kids, and drive around town for half an hour each way..

IIRC the reasoning behind no belts in busses was to aid in escaping should something happen. All said and done schoolbusses have an excellent safety record, it's more common to hear of a commercial airliner crash than a fatal schoolbus accident.

I've noticed those strobe lights lately, what a silly idea, it's very distracting to be driving on the freeway at night and have a strobe flashing repeatedly in my peripheral vision, I may be somehow more likely to see the bus (and how could I miss one anyway?) but at the expense of being more likely to not see other obstacles.

The silly stopping at railroad crossings came into effect after a bus driver stopped with the tail end of the bus hanging out over the track and got hit by a train, how stopping to look both ways first avoids that I'm not sure, if it were up to me I'd say stop if traffic is backed up to within a certain distance of the tracks, otherwise just go, it's stupid.

I lost the URL, but there was a guy who drove his Jeep (without the top) through a carwash. He put on a wetsuit and mask. No problems.

Or snow - the only way to stop one car from the abs letting the car roll down the hill was with the emergency brake.