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Sedans Volkswagen Jetta VW Jetta SportWagon
133 messages, Last post on Nov 05, 2009 at 4:53 AM
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Replying to: jogousa (Oct 28, 2009 5:29 am) http://www.car-safety.org/faq.html#Q61 At some point there was "concern" about "out of position" children, but even that has been addressed since 02/03. According to an IHS site http://www.iihs.org/research/qanda/airbags.html that is linked from the faq above the NHSTA knows of only 1 (as of 2008) child ever injured by a side air bag: "NHTSA has reported only one child who has been injured by a side airbag; a 3-year old sitting unrestrained in the front seat sustained minor facial skin lacerations from the side airbag cover." Furthermore, check out the edmunds article on this topic ( http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/safety/articles/105563/article.html ) You'll note that there are specific quotes from a BMW and VW/Audi about why they allow the rear side bags to be disabled. Here's the VW guy: " 'Even with the extensive testing, we know that not all consumers, primarily those with young children, are comfortable with having those types of airbags in the car, so we've made the decision to offer them only as an option,' says Steve Keyes, a spokesperson for Volkswagen and Audi." Parse the corporate speak yourself, but to me that sounds like: "some people are paranoid, and we don't want to fight with them so let them do whatever they want." To be fair, i actually appreciate choice in the matter, but at the same time all the information i'm seeing says that side torso bags are good for everyone, even kids.
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Replying to: veryhrm (Nov 04, 2009 12:10 pm) Here is one, quite relevant, from NHTSA http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/airbags/Airbags.html Isn't NHTSA considered "relevant" ? This discussion can go on forever, depending which "relevant" site you pick! Here is another one: http://www.iihs.org/research/qanda/airbags.html IIHS seems to be also one of the "relevant" sites that you quote but it depends on which link do you click....
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Replying to: jogousa (Nov 04, 2009 1:17 pm) The NHTSA page is two paragraphs of the boilerplate language that has been said about airbags for a good 10 or 15 years. The only specifics it mentions are rear-facing child seats in the front seat. It doesn't mention side impact airbags at all. Further there is no date on the page or any sources or references. On the other hand, the IIHS page is considerably more detailed and it explicitly addresses side impact air bags and even rear seat side impact airbags. It also cites sources and has a date on it showing it to be relatively current (Mar 2009). The only thing on this whole page that i can find that can be construed to support the anti-air-bag position is this sentence: "Like frontal airbags, side airbags have the potential to cause injury. However, side airbags typically are smaller and deploy with less energy than frontal airbags." This is then offset by several paragraphs that say it only was ever considered to be an issue with kids who aren't belted in and that even those have been addressed, AND, as mentioned in my previous post, that the NHTSA has record of only one child ever being hurt by a side airbag. Thus, as to the question on the table: "Should i get rear airbags and enable them in my VW if i have kids/grand-kids?" the answer is a nearly unqualified "yes". (It's only qualified by the statement that "i am not a lawyer or safety professional of any sort. YMMV.") For anyone still reading this, one of the sites linked from the iihs page is for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers' " Blue Ribbon Panel for the Evaluation of Advanced Technology Airbag". (http://www.brpadvancedairbags.org/). The bulk of it is about front impact air-bags, but the slides for one of the presentations: http://brpadvancedairbags.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/mullen-advanced-occupan- t-protection-systems.pdf has some pictures on page 8 of the starting position for some of the oop (out of position) testing that they do for side air-bags. Too bad the text / comments aren't included.
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Replying to: veryhrm (Nov 04, 2009 3:06 pm) the issue goes way beyond any particular VW or any one brand. if you really want to do your homework , try to find the individual case reports on NHTSA about the few hundred kids decapitated or paralyzed by airbags in low-speed/minor collisions. also consider the fact that it was NHTSA & their federal ilk who mandated the airbags that killed/maimed those kids, and take their posterior-covering analyses with an extra grain of salt because of that. |
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