StiloBoy said:
I know the precon 10 thing pulled the wheel into the dash, which is why Audi dropped it, even though it was actually better than an air bag (afterall, i'd rather get hit in the face with nothing than a red hot bag of air which may or may not still be expanding).
Airbags are also designed to slow the deceleration of the head by deflating when the head impacts it, Procon Ten does not offer this option, although it was a brilliant idea
StiloBoy said:
But don't cars still have colapsable steering columns? Afterall if you have a massive front impact the steering rack could be pushed back, even if your far enough way from the wheel before the crash it could be right up against you afterwards.... and if an airbag killed you they'd get pulled from the markety pretty quickly.
The steering columns do collapse, but the upper section remains 'fixed'. The idea being that if parts in the engine bay move the base of the column back, the top of the column is unaffected.
Other than people putting rear-facing child seats in front of airbags that are still active, pretty much all of the deaths by airbags are caused by people hitting them prematurely (i.e. when they 'explode') which snaps the neck. This happens for 3 reasons.
1) The impact is so massive the steering column moves too much. In such instances the person would have died with or without an airbag
2) People who sit too close to the steering wheel are too close to the airbag. Invarioubly, this is short people who need to reach the pedals. They fail to understand they need to move the seat upwards and then recline the backrest so their body is as far as possible away. My wife is 5' 3" and in order to sit with her arms reasonably stretched she reclines the backrest quite far. When I get in I can barely reach the wheel!!
3) People who don't wear seatbelts. I am amazed in this day and age that idiots don't wear them. In America many people are killed in this manner because in certain parts they refuse to wear seatbelts
Early airbags could kill because they did not deflate, so people would pass-out and then suffocate. This has been resolved by the airbag deflating, which also helps the strain on the neck and back