Air bags in most U.S. cars by 1990?

Press, 20 December 1986, Page 37

Air bags in most U.S. cars by 1990?

NZPA Washington Two of the top three United States car-makers told a Senate hearing they plan to equip most of their 1990 model cars with air bags. Spokesmen for Ford Motor Company and Chrysler Corporation said their plans to put a large number of the driver-side protective bags into their fleets as standard equipment is contingent on the Government extending its 1989 deadline for passive protective devices for both front-seat occupants. The Transportation Department already has said it plans to grant the extension so car-makers will be induced to equip cars with air bags at least on the driver side, while continuing the development of bags or belts to protect the passenger. The bags, which automatically inflate to protect a car occupant in a crash, are favoured by many auto-safety advocates over passive belts that automatically wrap around a car occupant because the belts can be

detached if considered cumbersome. With the commitments indicated by Ford and Chrysler, there are likely to be at least two million new cars sold during the 1990 model year which provide air bag protection for the driver, said Brian O’Neil, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. United States car sales, including imports, average 9 million to 10 million cars a year. Mr O’Neil said in an interview that Japanese car-makers “have been silent” on their air bag plans but that most of the European manufacturers are expected to equip their cars with driver-side air bags by 1990. Mercedes Benz already makes the devices standard equipment.

Mr O’Neil and other air bag advocates, meanwhile, predicted that General Motors, the largest manufacturer producing about 4.5 million cars a year, is likely to feel competitive pressure to expand its line of cars with air bags.

Helen Petrauskas, a Ford vice-president, testified that Ford was committed to protecting drivers with air bags “on a very large volume of our vehicles” beginning with the 1990 cars that go on sale in late 1989. The number of cars to be equipped with driverside bags will be “much closer to one million than 500,000,” said Ms Petrauskas. Ford builds about two million cars a year. A Chrysler representative said the No. 3 United States car-maker, which has a production line of about 1.2 million cars, also is planning to sharply expand its use of air bags, instead of the passive seat belt, to protect drivers. “We will have air bags on the driver side in most of our cars by 1990,” said Christopher Kennedy, Chrysler’s director of Federal Government affairs. “A driver-side air bag will be provided as an option in at least one 1988 car model,” he said. The carmakers for years had fought government attempts to require air bags in cars.