So you know how now as a design standard, each new car has to have at least driver and passenger airbags. Well did you know that they actually don't work? Okay, so if you're looking at just the effectiveness of airbags, they do reduce the amount of deaths, but you have to consider the offsetting behaviors of us the drivers.
A study conducted in Virginia found that out of 63 single car or multiple car accidents in which drivers with air-bag equipped cars were involved, 51 of them had the airbag driver as the initiator. So this shows that having airbags in cars actually makes people more aggressive drivers and thus limits airbags' effectiveness in reducing mortality. Actually, mortality rates remain the same and are just transferred to pedestrians and passengers.
For airbags to really be effective, we have to control our offsetting behaviors and drive as we would without airbags. But, that can be quite a hard thing to do. It's hard for me not to tear up at certain scenes of a movie. What's really interesting is that we pay more for these design standards for new cars yet we're really not benefitting from increased safety. Because of our offsetting behaviors and driving more aggressively, we're actually paying for the same risk of death.
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Honestly I must be an exception. I drive my mother's car just like I do mine. Her's has an air bag and mine does not have air bags. I just do not feel like being in an accident under both circumstances I guess.
http://www.colbertnation.com/
http://www.NRA.org/
Thats an interesting statistic. I too feel that people have decreased in driving ability over the years, but I don't think its completely attributed to the airbags. True all of the safety equipment we have in our cars todays gives many people a false sense of invincibility, but I think some people simply don't pay attension to them. Our cars have became faster and more aerodynamic, and simply look faster. It's no wonder people disregard everything and feel safe. I feel something needs to change in the american drivers attitude towards driving.
Thank you for the stat, I agree we are paying for more risk, but we can change it.
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