Quote:
Originally Posted by theunchosen
The safety equipment is not federally mandated.
Also its not illegal to start with. You can take your car to the dealer and have them disable it. I only ever disable systems if and when the owner asks for it.
I'm not really against frontal airbags. I can understand those. Side impact air bags are mostly useless. IF anything is going to hit you hard enough that your head might hit the object you're pretty well screwed anyway. I've seen lots of car wrecks as I helped out with the Carter County emergency squad and people are usually completely pinned in their car and bleeding to death before their head ever gets near spider glassing the side windows. . .
It might protect you. . .but honestly if something hits you hard enough for them to matter. . .the window is the least dangerous area.
The problem with air bags is they deploy most of the time when they are not useful(sub 30 mph) and cause injuries and burns. Above 30 mph an airbag is a huge benefit because it keeps you from cracking your face on the steering wheel if you sit close. I don't and have hard belts without tensioners so I can promise you its impossible for my face to get near anything the air bag protects from.
Most of our customers request we disable the airbags because they have had a wreck and prefer to go without.
But this is way off topic. . .
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Federal law not only requires front airbags, it makes it a felony to disable or remove them without written approval from the NHTSA. (
http://www.safercar.gov/staticfiles/...ch_Request.pdf)
And airbags are not just designed to keep you from hitting the steering wheel or window. They are designed to help your entire torso decelerate at the same rate so you are less likely to shear off an aorta. Rigid seatbelts will at least keep you in your seat but otherwise, they are more dangerous than modern seatbelts with airbags.