Study Shows Side Airbags Reduce Crash Deaths

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Airbags that drop from the roof or inflate from the seat to provide head protection in serious side crashes significantly reduce deaths, especially when cars are struck by bigger sport utilities and pickups, according to industry research to be released on Thursday.

Building on previous research, the findings by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety could pressure the auto industry and the government to accelerate efforts to incorporate head protection in more vehicles.
The auto industry agreed three years ago to equip all vehicles with side airbags with head protection as a standard feature by 2009. Federal safety regulators proposed in 2004 that automakers provide head protection but did not mandate a technology.

Safety advocates have urged regulators and the industry to make the technology standard as soon as possible.

"Once every passenger vehicle on the road has side airbags that include head protection for the front-seat occupants we can save as many as 2,000 lives per year," said Anne McCartt, the insurance group's research vice president and author of the report.

The institute's work is funded by the insurance industry and its crash test analyses are closely watched by the automakers and safety regulators.

In 2004, 2.7 million passenger vehicles were involved in side-impact crashes, according to police reports cited by the researchers. More than 9,000 people were killed.

Researchers concluded side airbags that protect the torso reduced deaths by 26 percent in side-impact crashes. The same study also found that deaths declined by an estimated 37 percent when the vehicle was also equipped with side airbags that protect the head.

"Head protecting side airbags reduce driver fatality risk when cars are struck by SUVs and pickups, not just other cars," McCartt said.

Side airbags deploy from the ceiling, the seat or the door. The technology is relatively new and is included in about 80 percent of new cars and sport utilities as standard or optional equipment. Fewer than half of all pickups have the feature.

The new research is important for government and industry efforts to address safety concerns that arise when bigger and stiffer vehicles -- mainly SUVs and pickups popular on American roads -- crash into smaller passenger cars.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates nearly 60 percent of those killed in serious side- impact crashes suffer brain injuries.

A NHTSA spokesman had no comment on the insurance group's research.

*TORSO = Torso is an anatomical term for the greater part of the human body without the head and limbs. It is also referred to as the trunk. The torso includes the chest, back, and abdomen.