What You Should Know About Automobile Air Bags

What keeps you safer– airbags or seat belts? The correct answer is seatbelts, which is why you’re supposed to wear them whenever you’re in the vehicle and it’s moving. Meanwhile, airbags are there as a sort-of “last resort,” in case there’s a sudden impact. Think of airbags as giant pillows that pop out at you upon impact. They can help “lessen the blow.”

Driver safety is important and it has been said that seat belts save lives– indeed they do. Buckling up prevents you from hitting the windshield, being thrown from the vehicle, and banging around the vehicle (hitting the steering wheel/door/etc.).

Air bags are effective when vehicle passengers are wearing seat belts. Airbags are designed to work well if you’re seated in the seat belt position– if you’re not buckled in and there’s a crash, then your body is going to move out of the position where the airbag works effectively.

In the old days, cars didn’t have seatbelts or airbags. Today, almost all of the latest models do, to help protect people from dangerous problems such as road hazards and distracted drivers.

Almost everyone knows what seat belts look like and how they function– they’re ubiquitous. However, most people have never seen an inflated airbag because they thankfully didn’t need one. That said, people often wonder, “How does the airbag know when to inflate?” Generally, airbags are triggered by sensors mounted at the front of the car. These sensors are designed to detect when the vehicle decelerates with a force equal to hitting a solid object at a speed of more than 25 km/h.

Like seat belts, airbags are meant to slow a passenger’s forward motion as evenly as possible in a fraction of a second. Made of a thin, nylon fabric, airbags are typically folded into the steering wheel, dashboard, seat and/or door. Thanks to science– an accelerometer built into a microchip– airbag sensors can and will inflate upon impact. They, like seat belts, ultimately help save lives.

To sum it up, without seat belts and airbags, if you were in a car crash today, you might easily die. But, thanks to those superb safety features, you’d likely survive a bad crash.

If you’ve recently been in an auto accident and want to have Dr. Gerard check you out from a chiropractor’s perspective, please make an appointment by calling 651-464-0800 today.