Statistics: How Statistics Determined Airbags Reduced Accident Fatalities

There are many people who do not understand the importance of seat belts for safety. They do not wear their seat belts even though they know the mortality statistics. Most of them think that seat belts do not help when an accident occurs. We have all made the excuse that the seat belt is uncomfortable. Driving is a dangerous duty that should always be practiced with more caution and care. Some people think that not wearing a seatbelt is rebellious. Other people think that they will never get into accident. Some of the consequences of not wearing a seat belt is that you could die, you can get injured and many more. So far, the only way to avoid these consequences from happening is to wear a seatbelt.

Background and Audience Relevance: According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2015, about thirty-five hundred people were killed, and four hundred thousand were injured in car crashes.

According to NHTSA, 13,941 lives were saved by seat belts in 2015 while an additional 2,814 could have been saved if properly restrained (2017). One impact of seat belt usage is reducing the risk serious or fatal injuries by about half. The CDC reported in 2009, 53% of occupants killed in crashes in the U.S. were not wearing seat belts (2014). According to data collected in 2008 by NHTSA, seat belts have saved an estimated 225,000 lives (2009). The benefit of wearing a seat belt can help increase chances of surviving a crash with little or no

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), “in 2015, seat belt use in passenger vehicles saved an estimated 13,941 lives” (1). The NHTSA goes on to say that almost 30 million Americans still don’t use seat belts on a daily basis. Since vehicle accidents are among the leading causes of death in the United States and even the world, the argument to improve seat belt technology has increased dramatically. Researchers are often more concerned with whether or not people are wearing their seat belts, not the effectiveness of them, until now, although both are incredibly important. Seat belt safety, which is directly related to seat belt technology, has been shown to be increasingly ineffective because of the high severity

For the people who use the excuse that "They are just going around the corner" should realize that 80% of traffic fatalities occur within a 25-mile radius of your home and at a speed of 40 miles an hour. Buckling up to drive around the block is probably the best time to do so. Everyone knows that car crashes can cause death; yet because people do not buckle up all the time thousands of people still die in traffic crashes yearly. Seatbelts can save your life in a crash and can reduce your risk of a serious injury. Seat belts keep drivers and passengers from being ejected through windows or doors. This is important because your chances of being killed are five times greater if you are thrown from the vehicle. Thousands of people who die in car crashes each year might still be alive today if they had only been wearing their seat belts.

Have you ever wondered why we need airbags? Cars have been around for multiple years now and have had many flaws. Many tests have been done to prevent these flaws. People are debating on if airbags are one of those flaws. People may believe that they don’t stop people from getting hurt. This is incorrect because of Newton's first law.

Texas traffic accidents leads the nation in car deaths. In some ways, the large number of crashes is to be expected; Texas is a very large state. However, the Texas death rate of 1.44 deaths per hundred million miles travelled also exceeds the national average of 1.28 deaths per hundred million miles travelled. In this proposal, I will provide accurate statistics of last year’s records and then provide a possible solution to reduce fatalities.

The main goal of this study was to “analyze how motor vehicle collision factors influence incidence, severity, and outcome of traumatic brain injury” depending on whether or not the driver was wearing a seatbelt or not. Through their findings they wanted to understand the collision factors that effect rehabilitation and functional outcome. The largest focus of this study was to find out more about causes that resulted in moderate to severe brain injuries. The original hypothesis was “failure to use a seatbelt would result in increased frontal lobe injury” and the original prediction was “increased rates of frontal lobe injury in the unrestrained (non-seatbelt wearers) would result in more compromised functional outcome.

The idea of a device that could restrain a person from propelling forward in the case of a crash, other than a seatbelt, was what first started the idea and development of the airbag. The version of the airbag that is available has taken time to become what it is today. The road has been long and has involved many turnabouts in the version for what airbags would be expected to do.3 As stated previously, it is now mandatory for new vehicles to contain an airbag and are meant to act as a safety device in addition to a seatbelt. The very first airbag was invented and patented in 1953 and have been commonly available since the late 1980’s.3 There are quite a few different people that take credit for the very first airbag, however it appears that a man by the name of John W. Hetrick of Newport, Pennsylvania did in fact invent the airbag.5 This idea of his was born after a traumatic car crash he experienced with his daughter.5 John swerved his car off the road into a ditch to avoid hitting a rock one day, and in the process, almost throwing his daughter through the windshield.5 This traumatic event set the idea of an airbag in motion and was the beginning of a very successful invention. With the automobile industry starting in the 1950’s, the research

Similarly, when the airbag restrains the body, it provides an equal and opposite force but unlike a steering wheel, it slowly deflates and also help reduce injuries through spreading the force over a larger area. Airbags effectively protect the passenger by providing a restraining force over a large area instead of just the steering wheel or dashboard. Frontal airbags reduce driver fatalities in frontal crashes by 29 percent and fatalities of front-seat passengers age 13 and older by 32 percent. Side airbags that protect the head reduce a car driver's risk of death in driver-side crashes by 37 percent and an SUV driver's risk by 52 percent. NHTSA estimates that as of 2013, 39,886 lives have been saved by frontal airbags. Although, statistics show that deaths among drivers using both airbags and seat belts are 26% lower than among drivers using seat belts alone. Through several statistics, airbags have been proven to significantly reduce the number and severity of injuries and deaths through providing a cushion distributing the force over a large area and decreasing the force of the passenger or driver hitting the steering wheel or

But, cars do possess features to avoid injury to the occupants in these types of collisions such as seat belts to prevent the person from a critical injury that could be life-threatening and air bags to decrease chances of the occupant from getting injured. (Bubbers,

Airbags slow down a person's speed as a car is rapidly slowing down, thus saving a person from a hard collision with the dashboard. A person in a car will travel at the same speed as the car. Someone will keep moving after a car stops because of Newton’s First

Car seats lifts children up so that the lap and shoulder seat belt fits over the strongest part of the child’s body. A vehicle seat belt is shaped to shield an average adult sized male. These child safety seats (CSS) help protect our children when properly installed until the kids are big enough for the adult seat belt. Safety seats are made to keep our children safe yet improper use is the leading cause of injury and death for children under the age of eight. Inappropriate use placed the child at a higher risk, “for ejection from the vehicle, injury to the head, neck, abdomen, and spinal cord” (public health; crash

Along with accidents not only comes a little headache or a broken bone, but injuries that stay with you forever such as whiplash and brain damage. Most brain damage incidents occur when you are involved in a side impact collision and the side of your head hits the glass (brain injury). Side impact airbags are just one of the many ways in which this type of life threatening injury can be avoided (whiplash). There is also whiplash, which hurls your head violently, and usually results in long term disability. Since whiplash is so hard to avoid, it can only be avoided by reducing the number of accidents on the streets. Also one of the most painful and most traumatizing injuries that we encounter in accidents are bone fractures, which occur in 65% of all accidents (Bush 11). So in turn by making these cars safer we can all avoid these painful, traumatizing, life-threatening injuries.

A typical airbag is a soft pillow to land against during a car crash. Airbags can be the necessity for saving your life in an accident. It is proven to be a major factor in vehicle passenger safety and survival. Airbags protect the passenger’s head from striking the dashboard and are extremely important in side collisions where a person can still be struck by an object entering the car. Statistics, according to bikersrights.com, show that airbags reduce the risk of dying in a direct frontal crash by at least 30%.