How does an airbag reduce injurys?

NDC325

Airbags are designed to cushion the occupants during a collision. They are used to slow you down, instead of a abrupt stop, the airbags lessen the g- forces on the occupants. They are also, used to stop/ slow down unbelted occupants crashing into the windshield. There are many types of airbags that are standard or available today

-dual frontal airbags(standard)
-knee airbags
-side curtain airbags
-and side torso airbags.

heres a VIDEO to help you understand the use of airbags.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEWCFjbqaaE

Marc

An airbag absorbs the impact and destroys momentum of the object it is struck by (your face).

vrrJT3

It also helps prevent basular skull fracture. This is important even in situations where your head doesn't even hit anything. If the force of your head going forward is enough to break your neck, the air bag stops your head from going forward too much.

BTW, a basular skull fracture is what killed Dale Earnhardt (#3 NASCAR).

desert camel

basically it saves you from caving in your skull against the windscreen...
no long answer here,just good infomation ;)

neal_hotrod

The bag deploys at severe impact. The air bag prevents your head from colliding with the steering wheel and can prevent severe wip-lash. It may bloody your nose but thats a far cry from crushing your face.

Seeder

Long answer isnt really needed
Basically, hitting a bag of air is alot better then hitting a hard dashboard and most likely a pane of glass.
if you dont think you'd lean that far, you'd be suprised, average people can go forward with a force of over 2 tonnes

npolynomial

Here's the real answer..

An air bag is not soft, it inflates so quickly that it still hurts to hit, but what it does do is spread out the surface area of the impact to more evenly distribute the force of collision. You can lie on a bed of nails for the same reason, each nail absorbs a small amount of the total force, but a single nail would go through you.

rmzerosk8er

well when an air bag deploys it is stopping the inertia that is pulling your body towards the accident.

(An object in motion will stay in motion until acted upon another force)

Well the air bag is the force stopping you instead of a steering wheel, or dashboard, or windshield.

Sometimes you can get burned from the bag deploying so rapidly.

Plus if your windshield does shatter the air bag can block some of the fragments coming at you.

UCANTCME

To protect the driver, front airbags are located in the steering wheel In many cars they are also in the dashboard on the passenger's side of the vehicle.

The airbags protect vehicle occupants in moderate-to-severe front-end crashes but are not designed to protect in side and rear impact or rollover collisions.

Update: NHTSA estimates that as of July 1, 2008 more than 27,000 people are alive because of frontal airbags. Eighty-two percent were drivers and 18 percent were front seat passengers. Forty percent were belted and 60 percent were unbelted.

In frontal crashes, airbags alone reduce driver fatalities by 29 percent and fatalities of right front passengers aged 13 and older by 32 percent.

The fatality reduction in frontal crashes is larger for unbelted drivers (34 percent) as compared to belted drivers (21 percent).

NHTSA estimates that the combination of an airbag plus a lap and shoulder belt reduces the risk of death by 61 percent compared with a 50 percent reduction for belts alone in frontal crashes.

Side airbags: Analyses of the efficacy of side airbags with head protection showed a 37 percent reduction in a passenger car driver's risk of death in driver-side crashes.

The fatality risk was reduced by 26 percent when the side airbag was designed to protect only the torso. The fatality risk for SUV drivers was reduced by 52 percent with head-protecting side airbags and by 30 percent with torso-only airbags.

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