Air bag safety for passengers and drivers

Air bag safety is important information to follow. Although air bags have saved many lives and prevented many injuries, there are dangers associated with their use. To reduce your risk of injury, you should take the following steps:

• Buckle up. Air bags are supplemental protection devices and work best when all occupants of a vehicle are properly restrained.
• Distance yourself. Because danger zone for air bags is the first 2 to 3 inches of inflation, front-seat occupants need to distance themselves 10 inches from the air bag.
  • The distance for front seat passengers is measured from the dashboard to the breast bone. In order to sufficiently distance themselves from the air bag, front seat passengers should move their seats all the way back.
  • The distance for drivers is measured from the center of the steering wheel to the breast bone. Drivers can sufficiently distance themselves by moving the seat as far back as possible while still easily reaching the pedals and by slightly reclining the back of the seat.
• Tilt the steering wheel. Drivers should tilt the steering wheel downward to guide the air bag toward the chest instead of the head and the neck. Pregnant women should make certain that the wheel is tilted toward the chest, not the abdomen or the head.

Air bag safety tips for children

Although the safest place for all children is buckled up in the back seat, children aged 12 and under should always ride in the back seat with their safety belts properly secured.

• Infants in rear-facing child safety seats should never ride in the front seat of a vehicle with a passenger air bag. The back of a rear-facing child safety seat sits very close to the dashboard. In a crash, an air bag inflates very quickly. Because the back of a rear-facing child safety seat sits very close to the dashboard, it could be struck with fatal force.
• Read the owner's manual for your vehicle as well as the instructions for your child safety seat to learn how to properly install your child seat in the vehicle.

If a child must ride in the front seat of a car equipped with an air bag, the following three steps should be followed:

• Properly restrain the child by using a booster seat plus a lap/shoulder belt or a lap/shoulder belt alone, depending on the size of the child.
• Push the vehicle seat all the way back to minimize the distance between the child and the air bag.
• Make sure the child sits with his or her back against the seat back, with as little slack as possible to minimize forward movement in the case of a crash

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