Yesterday my friend survived a head-on collision. He has a broken neck and an injured shoulder.

[no_hypocrisy]

BUT -- his spinal cord is unharmed. C7 complete fracture in his neck. Can breathe and talk and can move his arms and legs.

Will have surgery to stabilize his neck today and the shoulder after that.

Possibility that the injuries were caused by the airbag deployment.

[hlthe2b]

1. I've always wondered if shorter stature people were at greater risk from airbags. One size "fits all

does not seem like a great way to address safety, albeit a practical one.

Your friend is quite lucky and was obviously well cared for in extraction/transport to have maintained the spinal cord. Very lucky.

[mopinko]

2. they are known to be.

i'm 5'2", and very short in the legs. if my airbag ever deploys, i am as good as dead.
esp as i am highly unlikely to be doing 90 at the time.

[Pacifist Patriot]

3. Yes they are.

Huge flaw in the safety features of automobiles. Not everyone is a 70kg male.

[2naSalit]

4. Tht is scary

and your friend is very lucky. The love of my life, almost forty years ago now, suffered a C5 burst and was a quadriplegic for 30 years. It was awful. I'm glad your friend will recover for the most part.

A friend of my was T-boned by a truck a couple weeks ago. She didn't have any broken bones but she's pretty shaky and traumatized. I hope your friend recovers in that way too.

[The Figment]

5. The biggest problem with airbags

Is that shorter folk have to sit closer to the steering wheel, an airbag is designed for one to kinda fall into it,my best advice to people under 5'5 is to try and put the wheel at arms length from you,in other words reach for it rather than sit too close...and make sure that your seatbelts are snug!

Actually the three point seat belts in modern cars are not the best from a safety point,they allow too much side to side movement and allow ones body to go forward before they "lock" and stop your body from moving forward...I really wish auto makers would put a 5- point racing style harness in more cars, not every car but with cars becoming much more powerful than they used to be (300-750 hp becoming the norm) there is a real need to upgrade driver/passenger restraints from the 70's technology that is still in common use today.