Seat belts offer more protection than air bags

iver air bags offer relatively little benefit in road vehicle crashes compared with seat belts, finds a study in this week’s BMJ.

Researchers in the United States identified all passenger vehicles that crashed during 1990-2000 in which the driver or passenger, or both, died. A sample of 51,031 driver-passenger pairs was analysed to estimate the association of driver air bags with driver fatality.

Having an air bag was associated with an 8% reduction in the risk of death, whether the driver was belted or not. The reduction in risk was greater for women (12%) than for men (6%).

However, seat belts provided much greater protection, with seat belt use reducing the risk of death by 65%. Using a seat belt and having an air bag reduced the risk of death by 68%.

Media Contact

Emma Wilkinson alphagalileo

All latest news from the category: Transportation and Logistics

This field deals with all spatial and time-related activities involved in bridging the gap between goods and people, including their restructuring. This begins with the supplier and follows each stage of the operational value chain to product delivery and concludes with product disposal and recycling.

innovations-report provides informative reports and articles on such topics as traffic telematics, toll collection, traffic management systems, route planning, high-speed rail (Transrapid), traffic infrastructures, air safety, transport technologies, transport logistics, production logistics and mobility.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

New model of neuronal circuit provides insight on eye movement

Working with week-old zebrafish larva, researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and colleagues decoded how the connections formed by a network of neurons in the brainstem guide the fishes’ gaze. The…

Innovative protocol maps NMDA receptors in Alzheimer’s-Affected brains

Researchers from the Institute for Neurosciences (IN), a joint center of the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), who are also part of…

New insights into sleep

…uncover key mechanisms related to cognitive function. Discovery suggests broad implications for giving brain a boost. While it’s well known that sleep enhances cognitive performance, the underlying neural mechanisms, particularly…