Here's an interesting statistic:

[zbdent]

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has identified 101 crashes where the deployment of the passenger air bag resulted in fatal head or neck injuries to a child. In addition, three children have been killed by driver side air bags. Nineteen of these deaths were to infants in rear-facing child safety seats. Most of the other 84 children were determined to be completely unbuckled, "out of position," or wearing only the lap portion of the safety belt (improperly restrained) at the time of the crash.

http://www.nsc.org/partners/facts1.htm#D

So, roughly one seventh of the number of US casualties in Iraq in this war, and legislation gets passed to enable you to turn off the airbag deployment (which generally, when used correctly, does save lives).

Mind you, most of these fatalities are when the airbag was deployed when the victim was not secured by a seat belt, or was in the front seat when the warnings said that they should be in the back. (And I do recall reading about one infant being decapitated by the airbag because first, the child seat was in the front seat, and second, it was placed incorrectly).

[lapfog_1]

1. In general...

I'm against laws that protect us from ourselves... so I don't think
I can get all worked up about a law that allows some idiots to turn
off their airbags... OTOH, they might have turned off an airbag of
an unsuspecting passenger, and that would be bad. I oppose seat belt
laws for the same reason... evolution should be given a chance, IMHO. Besides, I've always found it stupid that everyone
in a 2,000+ lb. automobile has to buckle in, but if I buy and ride
a 400 lb. motorcycle, I can go faster and have absolutely nothing
but my clothing and possibly a crash helmet between me and stationary
solid objects, but that's perfectly legal.

Not that I don't use a seatbelt... I do. Not that I don't want
airbags, I do. Not that I don't research car safety reports before
buying a vehicle, I do. But I just don't think we should protect
others from their own stupidity. If we continue, eventually we will
have a majority of freepers.

[RC]

2. The 27 year old daughter of a woman I knew

had her neck broken by the air bag when her car was T-boned on the passenger side. She was properely strapped in.
I made sure my car did not have bags when I bought it.

[DrWeird]

3. I'm not sure I understand your point.

Are you trying to trivialize the US fatalities in Iraq?

Or are you interested in automobile safety regulation?

[zbdent]

4. A matter of perspective

I always love when the Repukes do the "more people die in State X than in Iraq"; Yeah, but if you consider the fact that the soldiers in Iraq are the equivalent of a California cop, then I would say that 700+ cops killed in a year in California would raise quite a huge stink about the lawlessness, eh?

BTW, I haven't seen your sig pic lately. I only recently realized where it came from (ATHF).