Front airbags prevent seatbelt bruises, right?

Nope. The bags only keep you from moving A LOT. After the first hit a bag is useless. The belt holds you in position so you still have a chance of control. And YES you will still get a belt bruise if it's worn properly. If your wearing it wrong you will likely get more than a bruise. Want to see pictures of people who didn't bother to wear a belt? You might need to do some cutting and pasting to undo the C&P job that they got from the accident.

All posts so far jive with my (admitedly relatively uninformed so far) opinion - that is, front airbags don't help all that much compared to seatbelts.

"Did you know that airbags save over 1,500 lives per year?" Inever got a reply when I emailed them the question of how. They alsosay in that"seat belts save over 10,000 lives in America every year." So what's all the hoopla about? People crow about airbags like they're some kind of fantastic safety advance.`

hillpc wrote: All posts so far jive with my opinion that front airbags don't help all that much compared to seatbelts. NHTSA says that in America each year airbags save over 1,500 lives, and that seat belts save over 10,000 lives.

So what's all the airbag hoopla about? People crow about airbags like they're some kind of fantastic safety advance. __________________________________________________________________

nospam wrote: They also have figures on how many children and smaller women have been killed by airbags, yet they don't publicize those ....... __________________________________________________________________

It is my understanding that the 3-point seat belt reduced the crash death rate by 42 per cent, compared to having no seat belt at all. Addition of a front airbag improved that number to 47 per cent. There were related reductions in the severity of non-death injuries.

One may compare the 42 per cent improvement from a $35 seat belt to the

5 per cent improvement from a $500 airbag, but such comparisons may be moot because both have become universally standard equipment. The cost/benefit of side-curtain airbags is worthy of discussion. Each buyer can trade off the cost versus the perceived risk of side-impact injury.

There is a risk of injury from the airbag itself. It is intended to strike a passenger in the chest but if struck in the head (child or small adult) facial bones can be broken or death could result from a broken neck. Even a standard adult struck by a properly functioning airbag can sustain injuries such as broken ribs or torn internal organs. Being struck by an airbag is similar to being struck by a medicine ball traveling at 30 mph.

In a high-speed crash, being struck by an airbag is still better than being struck by a steering wheel, but in a low-speed crash a deployed airbag may result in more injury than would have occurred with a seat belt alone.

Rodan.