Citation

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, USA. MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly. Rep. 1995; 44(45): 845-847.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1995, (in public domain), Publisher U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

7476837

Abstract

Air bags, when used as a supplement to safety belts, effectively prevent deaths and serious injuries in frontal motor-vehicle crashes. Air bags are standard equipment in most new cars; federal safety standards require that all new passenger cars and light trucks be equipped with both driver- and passenger-side air bags by 1999. The safety of air bags is well documented, and air bags have saved an estimated 900 lives since the late 1980s; however, special precautions are needed to safely transport children in vehicles equipped with air bags. Reports of eight deaths of child passengers in crashes involving air-bag deployment are of special concern because they involved low-speed crashes that the children otherwise might have survived. This report summarizes three of these eight cases.