Seat provides safety againt air bag? (moved to International)

Hello,
I have heard that the air bags which are meant for safety purpose are not totally safe for children and in some cases even for adults. Is it so? If it is so, than in that case is there any type of car seat specially meant for children which can provide safety to children in case of accidents against air bags or in other cases also.However it is being told not to make children sit in front seat, but in some cases one has to make the child sit in front seat, when there is no other solution.

Frontal airbags (the ones that come out of the dashboard) are extremely dangerous for rear-facing children. They can and have led to death.

Airbags can also be dangerous for forward-facing children and small adults. However, advances in airbag technology over the past decade or so have made airbags safer by deploying more slowly and with less force when a smaller occupant is detected. In the US, these Advanced Airbags started being introduced in 2003 and were standard by 2007, I believe. Even so, North American safety experts consider the back seat the safest place for children.

Forward-facing children (in a booster seat or harness) can usually ride up front if necessary in the United States. In Canada, forward-facing harnessed children need top tethers, which front seats usually don't have.

A rear-facing child should NEVER be placed in the front seat where there's an active airbag. In European cars, the airbags can (usually?) be disabled. In the US and Canada, they typically cannot.

In Europe and some other international markets, certain automakers sell child safety seats which when installed disable the airbag with a chip so the airbag doesn't have to be manually turned off and on.

Airbags are fantastic and save many lives each year. But airbags and kids don't work well together. This apply only in the front passenger seat which has the airbag with most power.

A child should NEVER sit in the front passenger seat with an active airbag. That applies especially for a rear facing child but also for forward facing children. It's extremely dangerous for a child to sit in the front passenger seat with an active airbag.

Airbags in US and rest of the world are also very different due to regulation FVMSS 208. US airbags are therefore far more powerful. This is due to a very strange, at least to me, policy regarding safety. FVMSS 208 assumes that people in the front seat aren't using the seat belt. I think this is weird since it's been a law for countless years. Anyway, FMVSS 208 therefore state that an airbag in front seat should be able to stop a driver or passenger who isn't wearing a seat belt. This is why the US airbags are larger and must have more power. In Europe we assume that driver and passenger are wearing the seat belt so volume of the airbag is roughly half of a US airbag. Power is also far lower.

When the airbag in front passenger seat is turned off safety for a child is completely different. Front passenger seat with airbag off is a great place for children both rear and forward facing. It's the safest place in the car for a rear facing child when looking at all factors.

Front passenger seat with airbag off for kids is mainly used in Sweden where most kids sit rear facing until age four or longer. Front passenger seat is used by a very high percentage of parents. Even among those who only have one child since it's so safe and practical.

Airbags can be turned off manually in most places except US and Canada. In Europe pretty much every car has a button or switch to turn off the airbag. There are some cars which have a sensor in front passenger seat which can deactivate the airbag. Personally this is not something I would trust.

In summary we can say that a child should NEVER sit in front passenger seat with an active airbag. The other airbags in the car have no negative safety impact on the child.

Adventuredad said:

Airbags in US and rest of the world are also very different due to regulation FVMSS 208. US airbags are therefore far more powerful. This is due to a very strange, at least to me, policy regarding safety. FVMSS 208 assumes that people in the front seat aren't using the seat belt. I think this is weird since it's been a law for countless years. Anyway, FMVSS 208 therefore state that an airbag in front seat should be able to stop a driver or passenger who isn't wearing a seat belt. This is why the US airbags are larger and must have more power.

Click to expand...

Once again, you're choosing to ignore or failing to understand Advanced airbag Systems. Original US airbags were designed to stop unrestrained people. Advanced Airbags (required for almost a decade now) deploy with different speed and force based on information gathered by the car: the sensed size of the person, the location of the seat, and whether or not the seatbelt is buckled. Advanced Airbags are much safer for children and small adults than the original ones. That's also why US cars often don't allow bracing or rear-tethering, because it can interfere with those sensors. But we've been over that before. Many times.