Australia has just had its first death from a faulty air bag ! Two cars collided in Cabramatta and neither the driver or the passenger in either car received life threatening injuries from the crash - but one driver was killed by the air bag that was supposed to save him from injury. When it activated it threw shards of metal into his face and a small metal fragment pierced his neck and killed him.
Months ago a number of makes and models of cars on Australian roads were recalled because it was discovered that the air bags fitted to them had faults. These came from a single Japanese manufacturer who had contracts with many car makers. It seems that over time the gas used to inflate the bags in a crash intensifies to the point that metal fitments are carried forward. It has been described as like firing a shotgun.
The trouble with recalls it that they are mandatory. They rely on the cooperation of the user and some people are too busy - or too apathetic - to get around to having the problem fixed. That is like playing Russian roulette. Not all the air bags produced with that fault deliver danger when activated, and those that are safe now may not be safe in the future. Unfortunately, it is the type of danger that a simple, low risk tailender in traffic may convert to a road death statistic.
There are probably very big numbers of cars on Australian roads which have not responded to that recall and eventually most of them will pass onto the second hand market. It is not a nice thought that the car you may think of buying when one of your children reach driving age may have a hidden fault that could describe it as " a death trap on wheels " !
There is a very simple way of weeding out cars with unresolved air bag defects but it would require the cooperation of all the state registration authorities. It would need the addition of air bag certification to become a part of the " pink slip " registration check that all vehicles more than four years old must undergo each year.
Ideally, the licensing authority doing that check would need to consult a distributor for the make of car and have that models individual identification body number checked against the brands computer records of air bag replacement. Any car that has not responded to the recall would be ineligible for registration until that work was done.
The purpose of that pink slip inspection is to determine that the vehicle presenting for registration has the required lighting in good working order, that the tyres conform to legal standard and the brakes work efficiently. Surely an inspection of the air bag system would be a reasonable extension of that safety check.
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