Questions & Answers Regarding Air Bags

The following questions and answers dealing with strategies to reduce the risk of death and injury to children were obtained from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) web page at http://www.nsa.nhtsa.dot.ov/airbag

Q: Should I put a rear-facing infant seat in the front seat of a vehicle with a passenger side air bag?

A: No. Unless the vehicle is equipped with a cut-off switch for the air bag and the air bag is shut off, under absolutely no circumstances should a parent place a rear-facing infant seat in front of an air bag. There is an extremely high risk of severe injury or fatality in this situation, and a child should never be subjected to this risk. Even if the air bag is shut off or there is no air bag, the safest place for all children 12 and under is in the rear seat.

Q: Should I put a forward-facing child safety seat in the right front seat with an air bag? Will the child be safe if the air bag deploys?

A: NHTSA recommends placing all children 12 and under in the rear seat. That is the safest place. If no option exists other than seating a young child in the front seat, several steps must be taken. First, the child needs to be properly restrained in the child seat. Second, the vehicle seat needs to be pushed all the way back, to maximize the distance between the child and the air bag.

Q: My child is too old for a child seat. Should I allow my child to ride in the front seat with an air bag? Will the child be safe if the air bag deploys?

A: NHTSA recommends placing all children 12 and under in the rear seat. That is the safest place. If no option exists other than seating them in the front seat, several steps need to be taken. First, the child needs to be properly restrained. This means, depending on the size of the child, you should use a booster seat plus a lap/shoulder belt, or a lap/shoulder belt alone (for larger children). Second, the vehicle seat needs to be pushed all the way back, to maximize the distance between the child and the air bag. Third, the child needs to be sitting with his/her back against the seat back, not wiggling around or leaning forward, with as little slack as possible in the belt in order to minimize forward movement in a crash.

Q: How did the agency determine that age 12 was the appropriate cutoff age below which children must be seated in the rear for maximum protection ? Wouldn't height and weight be better determinants than age?

A: All children are safest in the rear of a vehicle, regardless of their age or size. In recommending that children 12 and under never sit in the front seat of a vehicle which is equipped with a passenger air bag, the agency reviewed all crashes in which children were killed due to impacts from the air bag. In no instance, has a child above the age of nine been killed by the air bag. While height and weight could be useful determinants of a child's safety in air bag-equipped vehicles, there are no known precise measurements that can be used that will guarantee that no injuries or fatalities will occur. Each vehicle is equipped with a unique air bag, which will deploy with a different force. Thus, generalizations as to height and weight cannot be made. We do, however, know that children are safest in the rear of vehicles.