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Airbags and the Threshold for Profits

24 September 1998

Airbags and the Threshold for Profits

    ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 23 -- Ralph Hoar and Associates issued
the following:
    Controversy has marked airbag development since their introduction more
than three decades ago.  During those 30 years, there have been more myths,
lies, hopes, false hopes, spins and counterspins about airbags than about any
other issue in automotive history.
    "During the 1970s and early 1980s, I headed a coalition of about 60
organizations that was formed to lobby Congress not to kill airbags.
Enthusiasm in these quarters for the lifesaving devices is undiminished.
Although it's getting to feel a little bit like standing up for Bill Clinton
these days: He's done a lot of good but there are some troubling things about
him," says Ralph Hoar.
    It's easy to wonder about the replacement part windfall that manufacturers
reap by keeping airbag deployment thresholds unnecessarily low.  The billions
of dollars so far_and that is a conservative estimate_is enough to raise
eyebrows.  This much is clear:
    * Airbag related deaths and injuries occur when airbags deploy
unnecessarily in low speed crashes.
    * Automakers, by their own admission, say that they can protect people
from death or other serious injuries without airbags at speeds well above 15
miles per hour.
    * NHTSA tests show that cars with gentler, kinder airbags with higher
deployment thresholds would pass the mean old FMVSS 208 requirements.
    "There seem to be a billion or more reasons to keep airbag deployment
thresholds low.  A few dozen kids and a couple of short old ladies don't stand
a chance against those numbers.  Call me a cynic," says Ralph Hoar, "I've been
called worse."