Side Impact Airbag Mandate

When a vehicle barrels into the side of another vehicle even at speeds as low as 20 mph it often means head trauma or death for the driver or passengers in the struck vehicle. The federal government is now demanding that automakers take aggressive steps to protect our heads. U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters announced new side impact safety requirements for all passenger vehicles which will require automakers to provide head protection both in the front and back passenger compartment in side-impact crashes. NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) has worked on the regulation since 2004 but side impact safety has a longer history.

Side-Impact Testing
BMW and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety conducted a sobering crash test in 1997 slamming a 1997 BMW 528, with a side airbag designed to protect the thorax, into a 10-inch round rigid pole at 20 mph. Crash results showed the dummy's thorax was okay, but it sustained fatal head injuries. A tandem test with a 1998 BMW 528 equipped with BMW's Head Protection System (HPS) met the pole at the same speed. At impact, an airbag dropped from the ceiling to protect the driver's head. This time the dummy could walk away from the crash. HPS became standard in 1998 BMW 5 and 7 Series cars. Volvo and Mercedes Benz were working on similar "curtain" head protection systems at that time.


These head protection systems have an added bonus. Since they remain inflated longer than frontal airbags, they can prevent unbelted passengers from being partially or completely ejected from side windows during a rollover crash. Torso protecting airbags usually inflate from the seat while head protection systems usually inflate from the roof. Systems that combine head and torso protection usually inflate from the door or the seat.


IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) continued to test for head protection in side impact crashes, and in 2003 released a study showing that these protection systems were reducing fatalities by 45 percent for drivers in side impact collisions. Side airbags that protect only the chest and abdomen were also reducing deaths but by only 10 percent. At that time, 9,000 passenger vehicle occupants were dying in side impact crashes, mostly from head injuries. By 2003, nearly 40 percent of all passenger vehicle models offered head-protecting side airbags. But only 24 percent were offered as standard equipment.


IIHS stepped up its crash testing of these systems using a movable barrier to represent the front end of an SUV or pickup truck striking the sides of smaller vehicles. The best performers in these tests were vehicles equipped with head protection airbags. Crunching real world statistics, IIHS said in 2003 that cars equipped with these airbags had a 74 percent risk reduction when struck by another car or a minivan. A further study release by IIHS last year found that driver deaths were reduced by 52 percent in sport-utility vehicles equipped with head-protecting side airbags and by 37 percent in passenger cars.