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General Motors' 1997 Cadillac OeVittes will comeequipped with door-mounted side-impact air bags(shown top left) starting this fall. BMW's side airbag system (left) includes a tubular unit posi­tioned to protect people's heads in crashes aswell as another side bag to protect their thoraxesfor a total of six air bags - two frontal and fourside-impact bags. Ford plans to use a combina­tion head and thorax bag (above) in its vehicles.

second only to frontal crashes. Serious in­juries to people in side impacts usually in­volve the head, chest, and abdomen.

Jim Chamberlin. vice president of tech­nology planning and quality for TRW's oc­cupant restraint systems group, says themarket for side air bags has benefited fromthe recognition that safety is important toconsumers. "Safety has become more andmore a decision point for consumers. Be­cause safety sells and because of the com­petitive nature of the marketplace, as oneor two or three key car companies makethe move to side bags, other car compa­nies are at a disadvantage."

Volvo was first to offer standard sideair bags for front-seat occupants in its 850model lor 1995. Audi will be first with lourside-impact air bags to protect people inboth front and rear seats (see "AutomakerPlans for Side-Impact Air Bags," p.3).

Market Outlook Strong: Side air bagswill be in 1,700,000 vehicles worldwide bythe end of 1996- about 300,000 of them inNorth America, Chamberlin says. TRWprojects side bags will be in 5,000,000 vehi­cles worldwide in 1997. The next year,TRW expects side bags to be in about10,500,000 vehicles worldwide - 6,000,000in Europe and 4,000,000 in North America.

In comparison, more than 33,000,000passenger vehicles since the 1987 modelyear have been sold with frontal air bagsfor drivers. Another 15,000,000 cars havepassenger bags, too,

More cars in Europe will have sidebags initially than in the United States. butthe numbers should even out by 1999,Chamberlin says. In Europe, side bags aremore likely to be optional. In the UnitedStates, they're usually standard, explainsJim Erickson of Morton International.

Morton has about 30 side air bag con­tracts in development now, and 8-10 arefor 1997 model cars. Erickson says. TRWhas 55 different contracts lor side bags, in­cluding 33 for production and 22 for devel­opment. Four of the production contractswill come to market this year. Takata hasabout 12 contracts, and at least 1 is for a1997 model car, Karlow says. Delphi Interi­or and Lighting Systems, a unit of GeneralMotors, this year will provide one 01 itscustomers with air bags for a 1997 modelvehicle, a spokesman says.

Breed Technologies' first productioncontract lor a side-impact air bag is lor a1997 midsize car to be sold in Europe,says Michael Daly, vice president of engi­neering. Other contracts lor air bag sys­tems are in development, he adds.

Autoliv, Europe's largest manufacturer01 air bags and salety belts, (cont'd on p.6)

• When it made side-impact air bagsstandard in 850 models. Volvo became firstto put this protection in cars sold in theUnited States (see Status Report, Vol. 30,No.3, March 18, 1995). Since then, nearlyevery other automaker has announcedplans to follow suit. Here's a rundown:

Audi/Volkswagen will introduce sidebags in its 1997 flagship sedan, the AudiAS, which will debut in September. Thiscar will have four side air bags to protectpeople in both front and rear seats. De­ployed by an electronic sensor, the bagswill be seat-mounted. Audi will extendside bags to the A4 model sometime dur­ing the 1997 model year and then to theA6, which will be redesigned for 1998. Onthe Volkswagen side, "We do have ambi­tious plans," a spokesman says, but thecompany isn't ready to announce.

BMW's S. and 7-series for 1997 willhave door-mounted thorax bags deployedby electronic sensors. In mid-I997 models,a head bag will be added (see photo, fac­ing page). It will be stowed over the sidewindow and under the trim of the A-pillarand headliner.

• Chrysler hasn't formally announcedplans but is "really closely evaluating all ofthe various technology being developedand looking at the air bags themselves, aswell as at the proper locations for them,"a spokesman says.

Ford will phase in seat-mountedside air bags across its vehicle line inNorth America and Europe beginning in

two to three years. The combination bag(see photo, facing page) is designed toprotect both the head and chest in a side­impact collision. The Jaguar line may ini­tially get bags that protect the chest onlyand then switch to the combinationhead/chest bag, a Ford spokesman says.He declines to confirm or deny reportsthat side air bags will debut in the 1997Lincoln Continental.

General Motors will equip all 1997Cadillac DeVilies with door-mounted sidebags that primarily provide thorax protec­tion (see photo, facing page). Side bagsmounted in the seat will be standard onthe new Calera starting in spring 1997.General Motors declines to reveal plansfor additional makes and models, but in­dustry sources say a 1997 or early 1998Saturn will have seat-mounted side bags.Sources also say the 1997 Buick Park Av­enue will come with door-mounted sidebags, and 1998 models will have bagsmounted on seats. A General Motorsspokesman says any announcement wouldcome only a month or so before side airbags are available to consumers.

Honda declines to talk about itsplans, but a spokesman says the companyis ~investigating the market."

• Hyundai has no current plans forside air bags, a spokeswoman says.

Mazda isn't revealing specifics. Ac­cording to a spokesman, "we're investigat­ing a number of different approaches, sideair bags being one of them."

VOLVO recognizedfor introducing side-impact air bags& making them standard across its line

Mercedes offered side bags begin­ning with 1996 SL- and £-series models.These are door-mounted thorax bags de­ployed by electronic sensors. For the 1997model year, side bags will be in the x.lass,followed by C-c1ass cars.

Nissan will introduce side bags in aluxury model sold in Japan this summerand make them available in all cars sold inJapan by fall 1998. Aspokesman says thecompany isn't prepared yet to announceplans for models sold in the United States.Its products will have seat-mounted tho­rax bags that use electronic sensors.

Saab is targeting side bags for the1998 model year. Still in development,they'll be seat-mounted.

Subaru is developing side bags thatwill be available on some existing modelswithin the next two years, a companyspokesman says.

Toyota will introduce seat-mountedside air bags in a 1997 model premieringthis fall. The bag will provide chest pro­tection and use an electronic sensor.

• Volvo equips all of its models withside air bags. The first was the 850 sedanin 1995, lollowed by the 960 line lor 1996.Concealed in the outside seam of frontseat backs, the side bags are triggered bya mechanical sensor.

Enforcement ofPurchasing Age LawsOften Not High Priority

Minimum purchasing age laws for alco­hol have led to crash reductions amongyoung people, but the laws aren't well en­lorced by officials who may l>erceive theircommunities don't put high priority oncurbing underage drinking. These are thefindings of two studies from University ofMinnesota researchers.

Enlorcement by police and state alco­hol control agents typically focuses on theunderage drinker instead of people whosell or provide them with alcohol, whethera commercial outlet or an individual, re­searchers found in their analysis of 1988-90liquor law violations in 295 counties infour slates - Kentucky, Michigan, Mon­tana, and Oregon. Interviews also wereconducted with law enforcement officialsin 15 city and counly agencies in the fourstates, all 01 which prohibit alcohol sales10 people younger than 21 and ban minorsfrom possessing alcohol.

Eight~ight percent of the counties ex­amined during the three-year period re­corded arrests of people younger than 21lor illegal possession of alcoholic bever­ages Fewer counties recorded enlorce­ment actions against commercial outletsand adults. Seventy-three percent of allcounties recorded alcohol beverage con-

trol actions against commercial outlets dur­ing the three years, and 59 percent 01 thecounties recorded arrests of adults chargedwith furnishing alcohol to minors.

Interviews reveal that lew officials leelpressure from the community 10 increaseenforcement 01 laws against underagedrinking. compared with other enforce­ment activities. Most officials reported acertain degree 01 acceptance of underagedrinking and indicated that parents oftenconsider it a relatively minor offense.

Amajority of oUicers cited personneland resource shortages as hindrances toenforcing the legal alcohol purchasing age.Short staffing means officers often givepriority to other areas, so relatively lew un­derage drinking arrests are made.

Courts frequently don't mele out appr~priate punishments after arrests are made,most officers believe. Sanctions againstmerchants should be more severe. Theyshould include suspension or revocation oflicenses, officers said.

There's also strong support for increas­ing sentencing options for youth, such asrescinding driving privileges and providinglor community service.

-Deterring Sales and Provision of A1c~hoI to Minors: aStudy of Enforcement in 295Counties in Four States- by AC. Wagenaaret aI. and "Law Officers' Views of Enforce­ment of the Minimum Drinking Age: a Four­State Study" by A.C. Wagenaar and M. Wol>son appear in Public Health Reports 11~4.

Drivers Voice SupportFor Zero Tolerance,Graduated LicensingParents of Teenage ChildrenVoice the Strongest Support,Also Favor Driving Curfews

Fewer motorists now admit to drivingunder the influence of alcohol than did adecade ago. There's strong support for ze­ro tolerance laws and graduated licensinglaws lor beginning drivers. These are thefindings 01 a new study from the InsuranceResearch Council.

In a national survey, 21 percent 01 Ii·censed drivers reported driving aher drink­ing, compared with 37 percent in 1985.Men are more than twice as likely as wom­en to report such behavior.

The survey found overwhelming sup­port for zero alcohol tolerance laws foryoung drivers. Seventy-six percent of re­spondents lavor these laws for driversyounger than 21 who, under zero tolerance,would lose all driving privileges if caughtdriving with any alcohol in their blood.

Zero tolerance laws are particularlysupported by parents 01 teenage children.Eighty-two percent of respondents withchildren 13-17 years old rate the idea asexcellent or good. Parents also supportgraduated licensing programs (see StatusReport, Vol. 29, No. 13, Dec. 17, 1994) andnighttime driving curfew laws for peopleyounger than 18. They support a licensingage of 18 or older.

Sixty-nine percent of parents of chil­dren 13-17 said they favor graduated li­censing. The same percentage favor nightdriving curlews for teenagers. Sixty per­cent of parents said making teenagers waituntil age 18 or older for their licenses is anexcellent or good idea.

These survey findings are included inPublic Attitude Monitor 1995. For a copy($10 each), write: Insurance ResearchCouncil, 211 South Wheaton Avenue,Wheaton, IL 6Q187.

Teenagers Use Their Safety Belts More But Still Not as Much as Older PeopleDuring the 19805, Institute researchers

surveyed safety belt use among studentsarriving at six Maryland high schools, lind·lng that fewer young drivers were bucklingup than adults In the surrounding commu­nities. Revisiting five of these schools lastyear, the Institute discovered that moreteenage drivers are using belts now, anddifferences between their belt use ratesand those of adult drivers in the surround­ing communities have narrowed.

Driver belt use among students aUeoo­ing Maryland high schools was higher in1995 at four of the five schools surveyed inboth \988 and \995 (see Status Repon, Vol.25. No. \, Jan. 27, \990). "Although safetybelt use has increased, It still remains toolow, particularly when you consider thatteenage drivers have the highest crashrates," says Institute Senior Vice PresidentAllan F. Williams.

~Belt use is even lower among teenagepassengers than drivers," Williams adds.

"This is acause lor concern because teenagepassengers have a very high death ratetoo, with many killed in cars driven by oth­er teenagers. We know that about 40 per·cent of passenger vehicle occupant deathsof 1~19 year-olds involve passengers.~

High school driver belt use rates rangedwidely, the researchers found, from 36 per­cent to 91 percent. Rates lor right front·seat passengers ranged lrom 24 percent to74 percen\.

Astrong relationship was found be­tween driver and passenger safety beltuse. In vehicles with both a driver andright front passenger, 70 percent of thepassengers were belted if the driver buck­led up. If the driver wasn't belted. only 22percent of the passengers used their belts.

Females were more likely to buckle upthan males. Seventy.four percent of all fe­male high school drivers and right lrontpassengers were using belts. comparedwith 57 percent of males.

Safety belt use corresponded to eachcommunity's socioeconomic status. Schoolswhere researchers observed high driverbelt use rates are located In areas withhigh median household incomes, Schoolswhere low safety belt use was observedare located in communities where the in­comes are correspondingly low.

Primary enforcement of safety belt uselaws would get more teenagers 10 buckleup, Williams points out, and it would be avaluable addition to the graduated licens­ing programs under consideration in anumber of states. Most states, includingMaryland,1ave secondary belt la.. en­forcement provisions, meaning another vi­olation has to be detected before an officercan issue acitation lor not using a belt.

For a copy of "Variations in High SchoolSafety Belt Use~ by A.F. Williams et al..write: Publications, Insurance Institute forHighway Safety, 1005 North Glebe Road,Arlington. V~ 222m.

(conl'd from p.2) developed the world'sfirst side-impact air bag for the Volvo 850.The company has air bag contracts withvirtually every carmaker in Europe as wellas orders from major U.S. manufacturers,AUloliv President Gunnar Bark reveals.

Luxury cars generally will get side bagsfirst, and midsize cars will follow. Smallcars will get them, too, but on a more lim­ited basis, suppliers say. The first side bagfor a small car will debut in a 1997 model,says Rick Bogdanski, Breed's programmanager for side-impact development.

Seat·Mounted Bags Will Dominate:Side air bags are mounted either in thedoor like those in Mercedes or in the seatlike Valvos. Door-mounted systems de­signed primarily to protect the thorax orchest were the locus when side bags werebeing developed in the early 199Os. But "bythe time we got to introduction, there wasa shift,~ Chamberlin notes. "The great ma­jority of applications are seat-mounted.M

Erickson explains that, in seat-mountedsystems, the "bag moves with the seat andstays with the occupant. Therefore youdon't have to cover as wide of an area withthe bag as you do with a door-mountedbag.~ He adds that "keeping the size andamount of gas generated and the aggressiv­ity down is key to making it also acceptablefor out-of-position occupants."

Protecting the Head: Thorax bags pHrvide some head protection by keeping pe0­

ple's bodies from slamming into the door,B-piHar, or window, Volvo says. But side airbags designed to more fully protect thehead are on the horizon. BMW, for exam­ple, will use door-mounted side bags toprotect the thorax and aseparate inflatable

tubular structure to protect the head. Thissystem will be in ~ and 7-series BMWs be­ginning with mid·1997 models. Ford plansan integrated thorax and head protectionseat-mounted bag in some models in abouttwo years (see photos, p.2).

More than 15,000 fatal or serious headinjuries per year occur in side impacts.These injuries are from contact with theside window, B-pillar, and external objects.Serious injuries to the chest and abdomenoccur when the force 01 a side-impactcrash drives a door into an occupant.

"At Morton, we've really worked on de­veloping the combination head/thorax bagdiligently because we believe the biggestbenefit 01 side air bags is head protection,"Erickson says. "[ know a lot of companiesthat are providing thorax protection arealso looking at a separate head bag. Carcompanies are working on that, but thetechnology is coming along a little slower."

Breed sees "head impact bags to be thefuture," Daly says. "We'll start off with athorax bag in production, and as the mar­ket increases we'll be replacing those witha head and thorax protection bag."

Milliseconds to Deploy: Side-impactair bags will primarily use electronic sen­sors located in the crush zone to triggerdeployment. Because there's not muchspace between the door frame, wherecrash sensors typically are located, andoccupants, the sensors have to recognizea crash and deploy the bags considerablylaster than in a lrontal crash.

In lrontal crashes, front car parts crushto absorb crash energy belore it reachesthe occupant compartment and injurespeople riding inside. But in side impacts,

there's very little crush zone, so the objectstriking the car, whether another vehicleor an object like a pole, quickly intrudesinto the occupant compartment space.

The sensors in side bag systems mustdetect an impact within 4-5 milliseconds,compared with 15-20 milliseconds in afrontal crash. They also must inflate laster- within 20 milliseconds after initial im·pact compared with 60-75 milliseconds.

Side air bags typically are smaller thanfrontal bags, too. They're 6·20 liters ver­sus 40-70 liters for a driver air bag and anaverage 150 liters lor a passenger bag.

Benefils Are Promising: Side air bagsaren't in many cars yet, so their real bene­fits haven't been measured. But projec­tions based on lab tests plus anecdotessuggest side bags will be beneficial.

Frontal air bags have reduced driverdeaths by about 20 percent in lront andfront-angle crashes (see Status Reporl, Vol.30, No.3, March 18, 1995). Tests conduct­ed by air bag suppliers and automakersindicate side bags provide a 40.f>0 percentreduction in the dummy injury criteria forthe head and chest, Chamberlin says. "Insome cases, we may end up with lowernumbers, but generally it'll be in the high­er percentages," he says. Takata says itstests have shown up to an 80 percent im­provement in head injury scores with ahead/thorax bag.

Potential Hurdles: There may be barri­ers to widespread use of advanced re­straints like side-impact air bags for thehead and chest. Some automakers believethe National Highway Traffic Safety Ad­ministration's new head impact protectionstandard conflicts with the use of alterna·

Texas

ing laster than 70 mph, 75 mph, and even80 mph in both states.

·What's particularly alarming is thatdrivers on congested urban roads in­creasingly are traveling laster than theseroads were designed to handle salely,~

Institute Senior Vice President Allan F.Williams points out. "Some of the roadshave intersections, short merge lanes, andsubstandard roadside safety features."

Belore Texas' higher speed limits tookeffect, 12-19 percent of car drivers onthree urban freeways and an urban inter·state highway were traveling faster than70 mph. After the limit was set at 70, carswent even faster - 27-48 percent weretraveling faster than 70 mph. Before thespeed limit was raised, 2.5-5 percent ofcars were traveling faster than 75 mph,but this !}roportion jumped to 5-14 per·cent alter the law changed.

Compared with Texas, Calilornia hadhigher baseline travel speeds measuredbefore the new speed limits took effect.Motorists traveling faster than 70 mphbefore the law change ranged Irom 23 to36 percent. After the speed limit wasraised, 28-46 percent of drivers exceed­ed 70 mph, even though the new speedlimit was set al 65.

Telephone surveys of residents in com­munities where researchers monitoredspeeds reveal respondents' perceptionsof speed and speed enforcement. Morethan 80 percent in both communities saidthey're concerned about the speeds ofother vehicles on the roads.

In both communities, the majority ofrespondents said enlorcement of speedlimits hasn't changed since the limitswere raised. Slightly more than half ofthose surveyed said a driver exceedingthe speed limit by 10 mph would be tick­eted. Abo:.Jt 85 percent said a dri....er g<>­ing 20 mph faster than the speed limitwould get a ticket.

When asked il they'd ever received aspeeding ticket on freeways in their area,19 percent of Riverside respondents and25 percent in Houston said yes.

Status Rep,,", Vol. 31, Na. 4, May4, 1996 1

29

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1-215 iiiii~23~."""'''OM 28

26

1·10

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• Before Speed • Three MnnltUml1s RaISed All9\'" RaISing

Percentage of Cars Exceeding70 MPH on Urban Freeways

-"'=:::..""-'" ..

California-,,===-"46

Motorists in two states that raisedtheir posted speeds right alter the feder­al maximum speed limit was abolishedare driving faster and breaking the newspeed limits on urban freeways, data col­lected by the Institute revea1.

Using photo radar technology, re­searchers monitored traffic speeds onurban Ireeways in two communities ­Houston, Texas and Riverside, California- just before the limits were raised andthree months after they were raised.Speed limits in Texas climbed to 70 mphfrom 55 mph, and California's limits roseto 65 mph Irom 55.

There were substantial increases inaverage speeds on these roads plus in­creases in the percentages of cars travel-

Urban Freeway SpeedsJump In FU'St States toRaise Speed Limits

tive head protection systems, includingside air bags (see Status Report. Vol. 30, No.10, Dec. 2, 1995). BMW, Mercedes, Volks­wagen, and Volvo have asked that the rulebe changed to allow compliance alterna­tives for vehicles with such dynamic pro­tection systems. The federal agency istreating these requests as rulemaking pe­titions and reviewing comments.

Even Bigger Plans: Regardless of pos­sible regulatory hurdles, air bag suppliersand auto manufacturers are not only pro­ceeding with side bags but also with plansfor other kinds of air bags. Morton is de­veloping an inflatable bolster to protectthe knees and lower legs, which can be se­riously injured in frontal crashes whilethe upper body, protected by a frontal airbag, remains unharmed. The knee bolstershould appear for the first time in 1997Kia Sportage utility vehicles.

In addition to a knee bag, TRW is de­veloping an inflatable head restraint toprotect people from common whiplash ill­juries. Other bags proposed by supplierswould prated people in rollover crashes.An external air bag would cushion the ve­hicle itself in a crash.

What about side-impact bags for pe0­

ple in rear seats? Audi is going with themin a luxury model, but widespread adop­tion may be constrained by economics aswell as the low occupancy rate in the rearseats of passenger vehicles on U.s. roads.The big issue, Karlow notes, "is going tobe the cost. All of a sudden your basic carstarts to run over $20,000, and you beginto put it out of the ability of many peopleto own. That's why they're probably goingto be slower to put them in rear seats.~

Vol. 3), No.4, May 4, 1996

On the InsideSide-impact air bags first in Volvos andsoon in many more models p.l

Summary of automakers' plans lorside air bags p.3

Minimum purchasing age laws aren't ahigh priority for enforcement p.4

Zero tolerance, graduated licensing getsupport, survey shows p.4

Belt use Increases among teens but stillisn't as high as among older drivers .....p.5

Speeds jump on roads where higherspeed limits have been posted p.7

STATUS~REPORT]<K6 Nort.Il G1tbe RoadArlington, VA 222lll703/147·1500 FAX iOlf247·1678http:./r.vw.hwysalety.orll

Imctor 01 PublltltloosJ[dit AnDt flemingWntm. Kl.-Stewutaod Sharon J.1tIsaIuwnUilaria1 AulstW: CWne~Art DIrec'lor .Ioytt TbomP500Grapllic Designer; Leslie O&y

The In5uranct InsLtule lor HlghWily Saftty Is an Indtpen­denl. oonprofil. $denUlle and tdutaticnaJ O'1anlzallonlkdimtd to rtdudDg !be Ioues - du.ths, lnturies, andpro~rty dlmatt - !rom crashes on the nation', high­WiI)"5. The WllMe Is whoDy R.pporttd !ly auto Insurers.

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