The Reliable Air Bag (1981)

[Music] yes come on we got to go [Music] every year more than 50,000 people die in auto accidents 50,000 many of them might have lived if their bodies had been shielded from impacting the inside of their own cars the Department of Transportation is far back as 1968 became convinced that to reduce this death toll all cars must eventually be equipped with passive restraint systems they're called passive because they're part of the car requiring no action on the part of the driver to hook them up or activate them to date two systems have been developed tested and are ready for installation one is the passive belt system if you don't mind seat Bel restriction the other is the passive airbag some of the best ideas in life are simple this one is called a passive safety belt it's attached to the door frame when you step into your car and close the door you're automatically buckled up you and your front seat passenger are both protected really very simple Yes dear in 100,000 cars on the road already they have proven to be three times safer than the same car with standard belts when all cars have passage restraints we can save 9,000 lives a [Music] year the airbag passive restraint system is the result of Space Age Technology in two decades of research and testing while the car is being being driven the air C system constantly reports its operational reliability each time you turn on the ignition an air cion light in the instrument panel glows brightly for several seconds and then Fades out and while this is happening the diagnostic circuit within the system is checking the entire electrical Network including the lamp itself this light reports that your air coition system is fully operational if called upon to save your life the airbags are hidden in the steering wheel and under the deck you'd never know they were there until you need them the system is activated by a velocity sensor similar to those that control missiles in outer space the system is designed to withstand the roughest Road bumps Panic stops even driving the car off a ramp when it inflates it's only up there for that long and then it's deflated it it inflates and deflates automatically it inflates catches you in an emergency and then deflates and it amazes me how that sensor in the front of that car it's out ahead of you but it can pick up the impact of the wreck transmit it back to that unit in the steering wheel or in the passenger sign come out catch you before you before your brain can even register it you know it's it's amazing how that thing works [Music] movie director and stuntman Hal Needum and actress m Le Edmund Jr were the first human volunteers involved in airbag crash tests they were interviewed in Mr nm's Hollywood office um just so people don't get the wrong idea Le and I are not getting paid to do this this is not a commercial nobody's given us a quarter we want to be a part of the education program that this country should know about in regards to the airbag my background as a stunt man I have to have knowledge of wrecks and impacts and what that's all about plus the fact that I had tested the airbag I mean in three or four different occasions I knew exactly what it was all about so I remember we went there and it was a big big long room and a movie screen and I proceeded to watch what we were going to do or what the dummies were going to do and I sat there and I saw a steering wheel go through this dummy's body through it could have been a human body and I thought well that's slow motion what were they doing 200 M an hour and and then you said no and I thought this is what we're going to do I had I wanted to go to the nearest accd until I saw the airbag work and it's it's that's all there is to say about it we took the car into the wall at 24.9 M hour something like that right at 25 M hour and people say well that's not all that fast but we took it into a a solid barrier that did not give one4 of an inch so the only thing that gave Dave was the uh front of that car I think we shortened the car by about 28 in or 30 in something like that it's coming up I said what am I doing here and before I could get frightened you know naturally you see you're going fast before I could get frightened it was over with I've never been in such a situation where I actually saw something work like that firsthand if everybody could go through it then there'd be no doubt in their mind as to what they should do I mean you know they'd know immediately that yes I should really have one of those in my car how many people wear their seat belt I mean I I know there are some numbers and figures on it and I don't know what they are off top of my head but I know I don't wear a seat belt and I I know what a seat belt will do for you the passage restraint system it's there you don't have to hook it up if you're in a hurry whatever it is you just jump in your car it's there it's already in and it's hooked up and it's ready stunt men do not take chances they rely on the very best safety equipment available H Needum wrote and directed Smokey in the Bandit and smoky in the Bandit too in one Chase sequence an S mobile marked as a Georgia State Patrol car sideswiped a ponc the old mobile was equipped with airbags fortunately neither stun driver was hurt the only damage to the olds was a dented front fender H discussed the incident with me right after it happened corre if I'm wrong jack but what what we really did was by hitting this car on an angle with the wheels turned we didn't that car didn't absorb enough shock enough energy enough energy to set off the airbag yeah so consequently we took him over a 40 50 foot area here MH and uh he just rode down the cck yeah yeah and he hit the soft bar of the car here and just tore the door all up but that's amazing I really wanted to see the airbag inflate but uh I've learned something from it that uh if you don't have the impact 12 15 M hour it's not going to go off which is really kind of nice well it kind of proves the the confidence level you know that it's not supposed to Fire and uh it didn't for 4 years following its use in Smoky in the Bandit this car was parked unused in an outdoor lot in Wheeling Illinois it was exposed to temperature variables ranging from 110° to 19° below 0 f it survived four of the worst Winters in Chicago History including the blizzard of 79 yet with only its dead battery replaced the diagnostic circuitry signaled that the airbag was functional when the car was started for final proof that the airbags would still function we shipped this same s to Dynamic science Incorporated near Phoenix Arizona he us four minutes and count as in other crash tests technicians equipped the lifelike mannequins and the car itself with validating instruments to monitor the effects of the crash on the car and its potential human occupants the car was then towed into the barrier at 23 mph let's look at that again in slow motion and again notice that the velocity sensors respond so fast that the airbags are open even before the hood of the car buckles this is something you couldn't see in realtime photography please please stand clear of the vehicle for post test calibration and look at the damage to this car a fender bender didn't deploy the airbags and smoky in the Bandit because the impact wasn't severe enough to cause human injury this time the car was total yet test results showed that human occupants would have survived without injury after a Sid wipe in Smoky in the Bandit after 4 years of disuse after external exposure to heat and cold the reliable airbag still performs as designed and when [Music] needed really knows his way around these RAC tracks be plenty of action look out that's Big Riv is wild pania [Music] my name is Vic rivers and I drove this car into a concrete wall with the force of a 60 mph car toar crash I did the crash for scene in the new 20th Century Fox film moving violation but I refused to do it until I knew the car was equipped with airbags here look again I had a lap Bel on but I don't think it would have been enough the airbag really did the job now from the inside I get ready I brace poof it's like falling into a big marshmallow the sooner airbags are in all cars the better the final testimonial to airbag reliability lies with drivers of all ages in on the road experience when I was back in uh Wasington testifying for the U Department of Transportation I met about half a dozen of these people that had had accidents their lives really saved on the highways in everyday life boy you should have heard them testify for the airbag a doctor whose car collided with a bus at 35 mph as a doctor I feel quite certain that the airbags prevented me from having severe lacerations on my face and possibly chest from flying glass the airbags had uh certainly uh done something that I had never realized was possible with a piece of safety equipment a young driver who lost control of his car and struck a tree at 30 mph but um as a it was just fantastic that I survived that because I hit the tree right in line with my left headlights and it shoved the whole steering column back about a foot right into my stomach everyone says and I completely agree that if I would have had the airbags it would have killed me instantly my my body would have gone sailing through the windshield a nurse survived an intersection crash of between 35 and 37 mph I'm a registered nurse and um I have seen injuries as the result of accidents and uh some of them were pretty bad after the accident and the airbags were out I said to myself you know my God if these airbags hadn't been here we all would have gone through the windshield I just think that if it had not been for those airbags you know I hate to even think what would have happened and Mrs Daniels whose Toronado struck a truck at 46 mph her grand children were in the front seat unrestrained one seated on the armrest I just recall it it being like a big S pillow and I'm holding the whe of course and the airbag opens and then it goes all along the front of the car I saw what we had hit and I it was a miracle to me that we were all able to get out of the car and walk over to the side of the road light as they were and unrestrained the children would surely have been killed without the airbag and the slight injuries they did receive could have been prevented had proper child restraints been in use Dr Solomon survived a single car accident that involved five collisions ending with an 18 MH crash into a tree as far as I'm concerned I think that every vehicle that's purchased in the United States should uh have an airbag as part of their equipment I don't feel I'd be here today if I hadn't had this device in my car no airbag equipped vehicle has been manufactured in the United States since model years 1974 75 and 76 and then airbags appeared only in luxury automobiles as optional equipment why were they only optional why were they only in luxury automobiles why were they not properly advertised and why were they discontinued brakes aren't optional safety headrests aren't optional safety windshields aren't optional none of the vital safety features on americanmade automobiles are optional so why should passive restraint airbags be a luxury option that adds hundreds of dollars to the price of your family car when mass produced as standard equipment on all cars airbags should cost no more than an automobile's vanity options but they won't be mass-produced unless the public demands them Ralph nater appeared on the dahu show you want to stop all people from being injured by greed or by unthinking manufacturers or by unsafe products of you want to save lives horrific we believe you it also my sense that the number one thing in your life right now that you feel could probably save more lives than any other single thing ever invented in the history of man if this is hyperbole let me know the airbag you believe that well certainly it's the most important safety system ever to be put in automobiles if we can ever get it into automobiles I mean 22 million crashes a year VAR in severity and to keep people from going through windshields into steel and hard plastic should be a major cause of all Americans feel that a lot of these regulations we're placing on the American companies are absolutely crippling them in the foreign market and they I think they are especially the Auto industry we are not able to compete with our foreign competitors well first all the import cars have to meet the same standards that the American cars right across the board Japanese and Germans all of them have to meet the same standard secondly in the area of Crash protection when you hit against that tree or another car the small Japanese cars like Honda Toyota doson are more dangerous than the comparable small Us cars but you you know and it's and you know that I have been trying to get General Motors and others to highlight that and they won't inform the American people of that because they figure that'll get the Japanese Dand up they'll come in with airbags and safer cars and pretty soon we'll be on the lower part of the totem po during the last several years there have been a lot of safety features uh added to Automobiles and with the cost of automobiles today what do you feel is uh the cost of all the safety features now that have been added over the years what do you think I would say it's got to be close to $1,000 it isn't it isn't anywhere near that the total cost of all the federal safety standards put in automobiles including seat belts shoulder harnesses stronger door latches padded dash panels collapsable steering CS is less than $300 if you added it up from year to year it's the best bargain in the world tens of thousands of Americans are alive today and hundreds of thousands have avoided injuries because of these simple safety features we never get airbags in cars uh be even better well I wish that my car would have had airbags in it because instead of me hitting the dashboard and bouncing around inside the car and breaking my neck I would have hit the airbags and the accident wouldn't have put me in the position that I am now 50,000 deaths and 2 million injuries that's the toll oner America's highways every year in aviation terms 50,000 deaths equals one major air disaster every single day of the year you know that wouldn't be tolerated by an outraged public why then are we allowing the same Carnage on our highways when traffic deaths and injuries can be reduced we must convince Congress that every automobile must have as standard safety equipment the Rel relable airbag for more information write to the automotive occupant Protection Association 20001 Jefferson Davis Highway Arlington Virginia ZIP code 222 [Music] 02 that's why we've advocated that one of the greatest life- saving Technologies been proven on the highway over a billion miles a travel the airbag so that when you get into a situation it instantly inflates and gets out of the way right away and the people who have been saved by the airbag are of course their best best Witnesses if everybody could go through it then there'd be no doubt in their mind as to what they should do I mean you know they'd know immediately that yes I should really have one of those in my car they always talking about saving lives well damn here's the way to do it you know so let's put some airbags in those cars I want an air bag in my car I will not feel safe without one and I think that every vehicle that's purchased in the United States should uh have an airbag as part of their ordinary equipment I don't feel that I'd be here today if they hadn't had this device in my car if it had not been for those airbags you know I hate to even think what would have happen I will do all that I can I will go anywhere I work with anyone I'll get down on my hands and knees and beg to please let us put their bags in our cars for our safety and for our children's safety