wow, lots of misinformation and stupidity in this thread

personally i dislike airbags, and it may be a mis-begatten conception, but whatever

 

Well, since statistically speaking, airbags save lives, it pretty much is. They don't care if you dislike them, though, they'll be there to save your life nonetheless.

 

just thought I would bring this point back up... crush zones "fold" the metal, converting kinetic energy into heat and dissipating the remaining kinetic energy. Rather than the full force of impact creating a projectile out of whatever it hits, it folds.

Consider your hood, a very rigid hood would simply break its mounting bolts and slide into you or a passenger decapitating you. the crush zones designed into the hood absorb the impact by folding the hood into itself and then transferring a much lesser amount of force into the connected component.

This is why most body panels are made of two thinner pieces rather than a thick one.

 

According to the NHTSA, there were about 20,000 lives saved as a result air bags and about 250 deaths between 1990 and 2005. most deaths were due to a misused safety restraint.

In contrast, there were 146,000 recorded fatalities prevented by the use of seat belt restraints and no fatalities directly related to their use JUST FROM 2003-2005.

I'm gonna go ahead and bet on the seat belt thanks.

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