Administrative History

Air Bags

October, 1998

NMA's comments to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), claiming that the agency's rule ignored the safety of many individuals, were denied. In fact, almost all comments on the final rule were denied by NHTSA.

NHTSA appears to be using the threat of an air bag killing a child as an incentive for adults to place kids in the back seat. While NMA agrees that kids are safest in the back seat (in most types of vehicles), we believe it is utterly irresponsible for the federal government to justify the mandate for these potentially lethal devices in this manner.

In its response, NHTSA insists that it knows best about who should and shouldn't be allowed to have on/off switches installed. The official response says "NHTSA fully considered allowing persons to deactivate their air bags without having to show or claim actual risk. The agency decided that public safety interests dictate that individuals who do not fall within one of the specified risk groups should not be allowed to have an on-off switch installed. NHTSA does not believe that an individual's belief that he or she has the right to choose whether to have an air bag outweighs society's interest in avoiding death and serious injury and the enormous public expense associated with unnecessary injury."

While we have long used the analogy that the American public would not accept a federally mandated vaccine that kills a child or small adult for every 20 or 30 lives saved, NHTSA puts a different spin on the ratio of lives saved versus lost by air bags. NHTSA says, "The most recent data (June 1, 1998) indicate that while 105 persons have been killed by air bags, 3,148 person have been saved. Therefore, a person is 31 times more likely to be saved by an air bag than killed by an air bag."

Later in its official response, NHTSA actually used the vaccine analogy itself. "Petitioners claimed that air bags should be voluntary because individuals are allowed to withhold consent for all other forms of medical treatment. This comment raised issues not only beyond the scope of this rulemaking, but beyond the agency's authority given the statutory mandate for air bags. Nevertheless, the agency notes that air bags are a preventative measure similar to many medical therapies that significantly impact public health. Thus, children are required to be vaccinated before they can enter school, municipalities are required to provide a safe source of drinking water, and the American food supply is subjected to stringent controls to protect the public health."

Of course, NHTSA's vaccine analogy is logically inconsistent. Vaccines are required to protect people from diseases that are passed from person to person. Other people may be directly contaminated because one person contracts and spreads the disease. Choosing to shut off your air bag, or not have one at all, does not cause injury to someone else.

It's almost as if NHTSA believes death by air bag is just punishment for a child whose parents didn't buckle them up properly. "The vast majority of 105 air bag deaths could have been prevented through simple behavior modification, namely wearing a safety belt and moving the children to the back seat."

NHTSA simply doesn't believe motorists have the right to use their own judgement, so it has eliminated any chance for citizens to make their own decisions regarding air bags. For example, the agency claims, "...any deactivation, or switching off, of an air bag by or for an individual who does not fall within the specified risk groups constitutes misuse. That individual is safer with an air bag than without one. Accordingly, allowing all members of the general public to have on-off switches installed, regardless of risk, can only increase the potential for misuse."

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