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An NMA Member's Air Bag Experiment

I own a highly customized Miata. Early in its development, I decided to replace the stock steering wheel with a Monte Carlo model from Momo. Some of the particulars of that job is a whole story in itself, but anyway, after removing the stocker and being the curious experimenter that I am, I figured I'd detonate the airbag just to see what happened.

I placed the airbag module on my driveway with its mounting studs down so that the surface you normally face pointed straight up. I then ran wires from its electrical connections to my car, about 15 feet away. I positioned myself so that I could watch the bag as I touched the wires to the battery terminals.

Well, I'm not sure what I expected to see or hear, but what I didn't expect was the tremendous roar which echoed up and down my street. (I honestly anticipated the arrival of the gendarmes.) The entire unit literally disappeared instantaneously before my very eyes.

My first thought was that, given the sonic energy release I had just witnessed, the thing had well and truly disintegrated. After what I estimate to be about three seconds later, while I'm standing there scratching my head, something falls onto the driveway about where the bag had been -- the air bag. What had happened was that the gas vents located on the back side of the bag (which were facing downward) rocketed the unit into the sky.

At the time, I found the incident itself to be somewhat amusing. I also considered the possible consequences of having that thing go off in my face in the car for any reason. The pity of it all is that airbags exist to protect the seemingly small segment of our population which doesn't have the sense to use seatbelts. Should not the law of natural selection be allowed to operate here? The cost- effectiveness of this 'technology' is beyond farcical.

Suggestion: instead of fighting bad laws, fight the source of bad laws directly: politicians. But wait...I'm starting to rant.

Yours truly,
Stephen N. Coci

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