School Shootings Airbags Kill More Kids example essay topic

Air Bags Can Kill Beginning January 19, 1998, the final rule allows repair shops and dealers to install on-off switches that allow air bags in passenger cars and light trucks to be turned on and off in appropriate circumstances. Dealers and repair shops cannot perform this work without an authorization letter from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Vehicle owners can get this authorization letter by filling out a request form developed by NHTSA and sending it to the agency. Vehicle owners can only get on-off switches installed if they have a medical condition or needs a child restraint in the front seat. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for people between the ages of five and twenty-seven. Air bags reduce the risk of dying in a direct frontal crash by about thirty percent.

Air bags have saved over 4,758 lives since 1999. They also have prevented a large number of serious head and chest injuries. Children however have been the primary victims of death among air bags with approximately 146 confirmed deaths since 1999. Could some of these deaths have been prevented if the air bag in front of them would have been turned off? Critics say yes. The airbag option was founded in November 1996 to address the growing safety concerns brought on by the disfigurement and killing of drivers and passengers of automobiles equipped with S.R. S (safety restraint systems).

Government is best which governs least. Quoted by Henry Thoreau. We just don t need laws on airbags at all. It would be more practical for the driver of the car to make the choice if the airbag should be on or off.

Many of us have vehicles that are equipped with air bags. Every driver and passenger should have the right to make the decision to have an air bag on or off. There is a major airbag problem throughout the United States and we can find a very workable solution for it. To begin, we need to look at the current air bag problem. We need to be aware of the dangerous airbag problem in the world.

When an airbag deploys, there is an explosion in the dash and steering wheel that releases the airbags at a speed of 200 mph (Turning Off the Air Bags). This force has been found to be the cause of many deaths. Children and smaller women are the people that are affected the most by airbags. Airbag problems make a significant impact on people throughout the United States. Even though air bags are designed to save lives, they could be harmful or fatal to some people.

Airbags have been known to kill more children than school shootings. Since 1993, ninety-nine kids have been killed by airbags and only eighty-two kids have been killed in school shootings (Airbags Kill More Kids than School Shootings. Airbag problems do harm people throughout the United States. In an Internet article published by CNN it stated that even if the owner of a vehicle or a passenger has a medical condition that would put them at a greater risk from airbags, then they could apply permission to disable the airbags in their vehicle (Government Announces Rules for Air Bag Switches). This wouldn t protect people who would need to drive someone else's car. It only protects the vehicle's owner and immediate family.

Numerous advertisements shaped consumer expectations that air bags were soft pillows. The last thing consumers expected were that air bags could kill. Now that we understand the problem, we can begin to look at a solution for it. We need to allow anyone to install an on / off switch in his or her vehicle. Allowing anyone to install and on / off switch into their vehicle is the best workable solution to reducing airbag deaths in the United States. This solution would allow people to turn off airbags when needing children to ride in the front seat or smaller women needing to do the same.

Informed consumers would then be able to override the airbag system whenever they might pose a threat to the driver of passenger and many lives could be saved. Allowing anyone to install an on / off switch into their vehicle is a practical solution to reducing airbag deaths in the United States. Many airbags manufactured before 1998, have injured and killed vehicle occupants and will continue to do so. Even in collisions where people would not be hurt but for the airbag firing it killed them (The Hard Truth about Air Bags). This solution would be a more practical for the driver of the car to make the choice if the airbags should be on or off. Allowing anyone to install an on / off switch into their vehicle is the best desirable solution to reducing air bag deaths in the United States.

Especially with air bags unlike other mandatory safety devices like seatbelts, airbags have been proven dangerous. Many vehicles that have airbags have warnings on them explaining how dangerous they are and how to protect everyone, but wouldn t the best protection for some to be turning them off? This solution is an effective way to reduce airbag deaths in the world. There are many reasons why air bags kill and now there can be a solution for it. Even though most people benefit from airbags in serious crashes, some people don t. These people need to be able to turn off the air bag in front of them in any vehicle they drive or ride in, not just the one they own..