Seat Belts, Not Air Bags, Still Key in Preventing Injury

That air bag in the dashboard of your car may keep you alive in a devastating motor vehicle collision, but it will not provide much assistance in keeping you free from injury, and might even increase your injury risk if not used in conjunction with seat belts, according to new research from UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham). In a study published in the June issue of the Journal of Trauma, UAB researchers report that airbag deployment does not significantly reduce the risk of injury either used alone or in conjunction with seat belts.

June 17, 2003

BIRMINGHAM, AL — That air bag in the dashboard of your car may keep you alive in a devastating motor vehicle collision, but it will not provide much assistance in keeping you free from injury, and might even increase your injury risk if not used in conjunction with seat belts, according to new research from UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham). In a study published in the June issue of the Journal of Trauma, UAB researchers report that airbag deployment does not significantly reduce the risk of injury either used alone or in conjunction with seat belts.

“There is a great deal of evidence that airbag deployment does save lives in the most severe collisions that might otherwise result in fatal injuries,” says Gerald McGwin, Ph.D., associate director for research at the UAB Center for Injury Sciences. “But only one percent of vehicle crashes involve fatalities. We were interested in whether airbags reduced injury risk in the other 99 percent.”

McGwin’s results show that seat belts remain the gold standard in protection during a crash. In addition, the deployment of an airbag on an individual not restrained by a seat belt may increase the risk of injury to the knees and legs.

“The goal of restraint systems in vehicles is to minimize or eliminate injuries from crashes,” says McGwin. “Our results re-affirmed that seat belts are far and away the most effective restraint system. Further research will be necessary on air bags and other safety systems to truly protect the occupants of a vehicle in the event of a crash.”

McGwin examined injury and restraint data from over 15 million persons involved in police-reported, tow-away collisions between 1995 and 2000. He compared the comparative injury risk for individuals wearing a seat belt alone, those not wearing a seat belt and relying on airbags alone and those with both seat belts and airbags.

Injury risks for persons not wearing a seat belt but with a deployed airbag were dramatically higher for all kinds of injuries, particularly head, thorax and lower extremity injuries, than for those using a seat belt alone. Those involved in a collision who were wearing seat belts and had an air bag deploy showed no improvement in injury risk for head, thorax or abdominal injuries over seat belts alone, and the risk to upper and lower extremities increased significantly.

“Automobile occupants should still be encouraged to always use seat belts when in a vehicle,” says McGwin. “As airbag technology is improved and side and knee bolster airbags become more prevalent further research will be needed to determine the extent to which these devices reduce injury risk in motor vehicle crashes.”

More than 6.3 million police-reported motor vehicle crashes occurred in the U.S. in 2001. Almost one-third of these crashes resulted in an injury, with less than one percent resulting in a fatality, according to 2001 motor vehicle crash data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.