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RocksToRockets t1_is9wc5e wrote

Reply to comment by Robot_Tanlines in TIL the first confirmed victim of Takata airbags was 18y/o Parham. As she drove around a car park, she lightly bumped another vehicle making the airbag inflate, sending metal pieces at such tremendous force that one hit the teen’s neck slicing open her carotid artery. She bled to death in her seat by ahm713

I mean- if you are wearing a seatbelt I would rather just deal with the wheel. Airbags are relatively new when it comes to driving. I think you just perceive no airbag as a much bigger threat because you are young.

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Robot_Tanlines t1_is9yvuy wrote

Early windshields were made of glass so in accidents they cut people to shreds, just because safety glasses is newer doesn’t make it less safe. We are is much safer in cars than we ever were before, airbags save lives. Just like seatbelts, there’s always a person who says well not wearing one saved my life, but they are the exception not the rule.

“Front airbags reduce driver fatalities in frontal crashes by 29 percent and fatalities of front-seat passengers age 13 and older by 32 percent”

https://www.iihs.org/topics/airbags

That means you are significantly safer with airbags. The deaths from this recall are tragic, but they are a very small number one, the vast majority of people with those cars were safer with faulty airbags than without.

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celo753 t1_isa3l0z wrote

It’s also not just fatalities that matter, it reduces the risk of serious injury too. I’d rather hit an airbag and break an arm than hit the steering wheel or glovebox and break 9 different bones and have my face smashed in, even if I don’t die in either situation.

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Robot_Tanlines t1_isahbuy wrote

Yup, Reddit never ceases to amaze me, show them actual evidence and they are just like nah. The faulty airbags killed 1 in a million people, there is no way that airbags didn’t save more than 1 person per million. Oh where I came up with that 19.4M number was from an old article, it has grown to 67M with 27 confirmed fatalities and 400 injuries. There is absolutely no way people are safer with a disconnected airbag than one of the ones being recalled.

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