Most people don't give it much though, but there is a serious danger resting in your hands when you drive a modern car. The thing that you have been told is your best friend is actually your worst enemy! While that may sound a bit strange to most people, with a little luck you will finally learn what the automotive industry, as well as the government, is afraid for you to know. To be honest, you probably know much of what you are about to be told. The odds are that you just haven't put two and two together - yet.

Consider this scenario. It's a great day outside, so you decide to drive over to see a friend. You are almost to the end of your street as you flip through the presets on your radio. Nothing out of the ordinary so far, but out of nowhere a car pulls out in front of you. You slam on your brakes and hope for the best. BOOM! Suddenly your hands are ripped from the steering wheel and you are punched in the face with the force of Mike Tyson. Dazed and confused you are surrounded by a cloud of smoke. As you begin to collect yourself, you feel a horrible burning sensation on your face and arms. You realize that your Air Bag has just deployed. Dazed and confused you can only imagine the amount of damage that has just occurred. You unbuckle your seatbelt and get out of your car only to find just minor damage to both cars. At this point you start to wonder if all this was really necessary.

This is not what most people think of when they think of Air Bags. The sad thing is that most people think of Air Bags as a safety feature that they want - until they have to use them. Every day this type of accident occurs, and most people are left with the wrong impression of what really happened. Unfortunatly most of the people who experience this are so traumatized by what happened, they can only assume that the Air Bag had to have saved their life. After all why else would they have endured such an event. The worst part is that this did not have to happen. The speed at the time of the impact may have been as little as 10 mph. As if the pain from the contact with the Air bag was not enough, now the Air Bag is going to cost you somewhere between $400 and $1200 to replace. And that is just for the Bag; in many cases most of the dash must also be replaced. You can thank your car company for that nifty design feature. Hope you have insurance. Now If you think this isn't so great, remember all too often you asked for it.

I can't blame you though. The automakers and the media really make Air Bags sound so good. How many times have you heard just how lucky you are to now have dual Air Bags. Before you put all the blame on the auto makers, you need to know some facts. Believe it or not there was a time when, because of the potential dangers to children, the auto makers did not want to install Air Bags. Back then, some made it an option, the way it should be now. Unfortunately, someone somewhere thought we could not take care of ourselves and passed a Federal Law in 1990 mandating passive restraint systems in all passenger cars sold in the US. This includes either automatic type safety belts or Air Bags. It didn't take long for the auto- makers to realize the downside of automatic seat belts. They were a problem to design around, they were not used properly, could often malfunction, and most importantly - people didn't like them. I don't have to tell you how quickly the auto makers and the public fell in love with the Air Bag. To make matters worse, starting in 1999 all cars and trucks must have dual Air Bags. This is something that must be stopped now - before it's too late. It is a shame when important decisions like this are made by someone other than ourselves. One more thing to remember is how nice it used to be to have cup holders and storage compartments where your Air Bag now sits.

Even though the media tries to hide the facts, they are finally starting to notice some of the downsides to the Air Bag. Most people have been shocked to find out about all the recent deaths caused by Air Bags. Only they are not anything new. They have been happening since the Air Bag first came out, and a lot more often than you may think. Also starting to leak out are the dangers for short women. The part you still have not been told is that death is only one possibility. In most accidents involving Air Bags, injury from the Air Bag itself is the result. These injuries are usually incorrectly blamed on the accident and not the Air Bag. This is unfortunate because most people just don't know of the dangers of the Air Bag. I find it strange why people can't realize that what can kill a small child will at least injure an adult! It may come as a surprise to many that mechanics and installers are all warned of the dangers of the Air Bag. For them, touching the wrong wire while their head is under the dash can cause permanent hearing loss at the very least if the Air Bag deploys. After I explain how the Air Bag works, this may make more sense.

An Air Bag is a large inflatable bag placed inside your steering wheel and possibly inside your dash if you have dual Air Bags. When sensors placed around your vehicle detect a collision, they trigger the Air Bags to inflate. This is supposed to happen at vehicle speeds above 10-15 mph. The rapid inflation is made possible by a small canister of sodium azide that releases nitrogen gas and sodium hydroxide dust. This product is both flamable and toxic. This chemical reaction causes the Air Bag to inflate with over 1000 pounds of pressure. Durring this inflation, the canister heats up to about 300 degrees of temperature. To aid in a smooth release, the Air Bag is coated with either talc or corn starch. Now that you know what happens from the technical side, lets look at the speeds and pressures involved.

Once the sensors are tripped, the Air Bag is triggered in about .05 of a second. The Air Bag then takes only another .1 of a second more to fully inflate. The next half second is spent deflating the Air Bag. At this point you will need to consider the size of the bag. It is slightly larger around than your steering wheel, and will extend back about nine inches to a foot. If your hands are on the steering wheel when it deploys they will probably be knocked off. I sure hope you don't need to steer your car at this point. Let's also hope nothing was between you and your Air Bag, like a cup of hot coffee, your hands, or even your glasses. If there is something there it is now going to be smashed into your body and/or your face.

Now that we know how fast it all happens, let's consider the force at which it all happens. At over 1000 pounds per inch, there is a lot of force. No matter how soft they tell you that Bag is, nothing in this world is going to feel good at that kind of pressure! Would you be any more interested in being punched by Mike Tyson if he put an Air Bag on the end of his glove? Not likely! Keep in mind it only takes about 10 pounds of pressure in your tires to hold up your car. Increase that to the 40 psi you should have and go kick a tire - it's rather solid isn't it.

Now lets put it all together. Imagine you are involved in a head-on collision with another car and both of you are traveling at 30 mph. This means your terminal impact speed will be 60 mph. Even the fastest Air Bag in the world will take a total of .1 of a second to react and fully inflate. At a 60 mph terminal speed, your body is traveling at 88 feet per second. This means that in the .1 of a second your Air bag is going to need, your body will have traveled 8.8 feet. It doesn't take much to see that the Air Bag is not going to come into play until well after your impact, when all it will do is come back and injure you. It is important to understand that it is your seat belt that will have saved you, NOT your Air Bag. This is why every Air Bag demo you will see is rigged. When they show you the seat belt only, they are usually not fastened properly. The Air Bag demo, on the other hand, is set up with seat belts fastened securely and at low speeds. When they show you speeds of 30 mph, this is because this is the maximum speed that the Air Bag will deploy in time. Not that this will make it feel any better. This speed also implies that you hit a stationary object. Remember when you hit another car you must add both speeds, and that makes a big difference.

Even more ridiculous are the new Air Bags being introduced. With the new side impact Air Bags, they explode into your ear. Not that this small Air Bag is going to keep you from hitting the side of your car. Even better, in some of the new Air Bag tests on TV, it's actually the front Air Bag that causes you to bounce off the Air bag and hit the structure of the car! The best part is that this happens even at slower speeds - the speeds at which the Air bag people like to use for demonstrations. Sometimes it's nice when the truth comes out. The best demonstrations of safety are shown in auto racing, where all too often cars slam into walls at speeds over 200 mph. In these races the drivers get out of their cars and walk away - and they don't have Air Bags! (For more on how it is that they stay so safe, see the next page) In fact in showroom stock classes they use the same kind of cars we all drive every day, only they remove the Air bag for safety! Almost all automotive innovations come from auto racing, so where did the Air bag come from? I only wish I knew...

This information has been provided, not to scare you, but alert you. The countless millions of dollars that are being spent on Air Bag development, could be much better spent on other more important things. More importantly, the use of Air Bags should be consumer driven and not a government mandate. People should have the choice to NOT be forced into the use of a device that could kill or injure them. If this information has changed the way you think about Air Bags, please try and make a difference. Let the auto makers and dealers know how you feel. Tell your friends to do the same. We need to have a choice when it comes to issues as important as this. If we don't make an effort now, we will be forced to live by their rules forever.