Obviously .............tragedies like this have lead to ..........
small children always in the back.
Front passenger seat air bags that can be turned off - though that was
short-lived because next they came up with
seats that sense the weight and presence of the person in the passenger's
seat...........'smart air bags' .  and I think there are two stage air bag
systems now.

It was pretty dumb to make airbags for 60+ mph crashes, but that can
triggered full force at 20 mph.
Just happened to a woman friend of mine too - 95 Ford Escort.........I doubt
she was going over 25mph, if that.
got distracted or in a rush, ran into the car in front of
her.............didn't even do that much damage to the front of her car, yet
both air bags deployed, and as far as I know, full force.  No one was in the
passernger's front seat, and she keeps her granddaughter in a child's seat
in back of course. The air bag from the steering wheel hub bruised her arms
somewhat.  Sure seemed to me that there was no need for air bags to go off,
but I wasn't there either. She described as 'no big deal' .......the minor
crash.
  I think the passenger's air bag is what cracked the windshield too.
She might claim it on her insurance.............which would be 're-do both
front air bags completely, fix the stuck on horn ( might have to do with the
steering wheel hub air bag going off ) ........new windshield, and replace
the full size wrap around front plastic bumper............I'm guestitmating
up to $ 3,000 for that repair.
I think it's pretty fair to say that many, many newer cars are 'totaled'
insurance-wise, because the are so expensive to repair, even for minor
crashes.
Her car drove just fine.............the headlights worked just fine, the
hood was barely affected in the latch area, which I fixed in about 5
seconds......
yet it could be 3 grand in repair costs.
   I'm hoping she can get paid for it, the whole amount,  and keep the car.
She's driving it daily right now.  Worst thing is the horn doesn't work, and
a cracked windshield..........
heck, in Western Washington I saw more cracked windshields than I've ever
seen in my life. It was very unusual to see a used car for sale that didn't
have a cracked windshield.
And would anyone know if the air bags have to be working in a car so
equipped ? .........from a 'legal equipment point of view - just like horn
and all lights need to be working etc ?
At least no one got hurt !
Scott
www.turbovans.com

----- Original Message -----
From: "Joy Hecht" <hecht.joy@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, October 10, 2008 4:55 PM
Subject: Re: Recent Car Talk Shows - re air bags

> On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 8:43 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <
> scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
>
>>
>
>
> <snip>
>
>>
>> there is a woman who had her one year old decapitated by a jetta air bag
>> in
>> a shopping mall parking lot incident.
>> - that's right, as in killed dead by an air bag in a minor fender bender.
>> She probably collected 5 million dollars too.
>
>
> Don't they specifically say small children should NOT be in the front seat
> because of that very risk?  Kid seats in the car are always in the back.
>
>
>
> Joy