Airbag crisis? I don’t think so
The biggest safety hazard is our own woeful lack of mandatory driving skills
The recent American recall of about 27 million vehicles for possibly defective airbags made by the Japanese company Takata is the biggest automotive recall ever, and might be the biggest consumer product recall in any segment ever.
It might cost billions of dollars to locate, bring in and repair the affected cars.
How concerned should you be if you own one of these cars, and what should our governments be doing about it? Statistically speaking, “not at all,” and “nothing” respectively. Let’s look at some numbers: In the time period covered by this recall (2002 to 2008), 17,307 people died on Canadian roads. Of those, zero were killed by these airbags.
In the States, that same time period saw 293,625 people die on American roads. (All data from government sources.) Of those deaths, it would appear that six were caused by prematurely deploying Takata airbags. That’s 0.002 per cent.
You don’t need to be an Albert Einstein or a Stephen Hawking to realize that a prematurely deploying Takata airbag is hardly the biggest safety issue you face on the road.
The authorities in the U.S. are planning on spending billions on this recall, not to mention spreading fear and panic amongst its citizens?
With all due respect to the families of the six dead Americans, and to the 100-odd injured people, we should be totally ignoring this entire issue, focusing instead on what is really killing our family and friends on our roads and dedicating whatev- er resources we can find to eliminating those problems. The No. 1 problem? We can’t drive. While driving impaired — or, most critically, unbelted — disproportionately exposes you to risk, the vast majority of traffic fatalities are caused by driver error and occur under what would be considered ideal conditions.
Good weather. Clean, clear roads. No mechanical flaws in the vehicle. Sober drivers.
We just run into each other or some hard object because collectively we don’t have a clue.
Governments pretty much the world over just don’t give a damn and seem prepared to accept this carnage.
In Canada, for example, car crashes are the No. 1 cause of premature death to people aged 15 to 24 and, in effect, the worst loss of “personyears” overall due to the youth of the victims.
There appears to be no political advantage in doing something that would actually help, compared to the grandstanding involved in sticking it to some faceless and conveniently foreign-owned corporation that creates a highly technical product which sits in a car for up to 15 years with zero maintenance and still achieves a 99.998 per cent effectiveness rate. These people should be making our cellphones.
Among the ironies of this situation is the fact we probably wouldn’t have airbags at all if Americans would only have buckled up their seatbelts. But because they wouldn’t and because unlike the governments of civilized countries, American politicians were too cowardly to enact appropriate legislation, they instead forced carmakers to develop “passive” restraint systems that could protect the “average” driver in a 50-km/h frontal collision into a concrete wall while not wearing a seatbelt.
Too bad if you weren’t average. Dozens of, perhaps hundreds of (certainly, way more than six) children and adults of shorter stature have been killed by “proper” deployment of airbags.
The U.S. Department of Transportation somewhat self-congratulatingly claims more than 37,000 lives have been “saved” by airbags. But when airbags were first introduced, it was shown conclusively that they added only a small degree — 7 per cent — of overall “survivability” in a car crash to occupants who were properly buckled up.
Sure, I’ll take every percentage point I can get. And the subsequent development of side and “curtain” airbags has added a few more percentage points to that overall score.
But if the American D of T and its political masters had instead insisted on proper seatbelt usage, most of those 37,000 lives would have been saved anyway. Those child and small adult airbag victims would still be with us, and we would not be having this discussion.
Even today, U.S. seatbelt usage rates, while better than before, still lag those of civilized countries. They are mid- to high-80 per cent, depending on which source you quote, versus mid- to high-90s in places like Canada and Australia.
Recall the fatality statistics mentioned earlier over that 2002-’08 time period. Most statistics of Canada-versus-U.S. trends reflect the one-to-10 population ratio between our countries. So if we killed 17,307, the American number should be about 173,070. Instead, it’s 293,625.
Our driving environments may not be identical but they are close. Similar roads, similar cars, similar driving distances and our weather may actually be worse on average. So while it may not be exactly apples to apples, certainly a pretty good case could be made that those 120,555 extra deaths, almost entirely due to non-belted occupants, can be laid at the feet of U.S. legislators.
And they are blaming Takata for six deaths? Physician/politician, heal thyself.
So, what should governments do in response to this “crisis?”
Easy. Forget airbag recalls and introduce meaningful driver training programs, meaningful driver licencing tests and mandatory retesting every five years.
This would cut traffic deaths and injuries, reduce the massive toll they take on our health care, policing and judicial systems, thereby leading to lower taxes for all and create thousands of sustainable jobs in the construction and operation of the required training and testing facilities.
Charge a fee for retesting, and this would all pay for itself.
What? Improve public safety, reduce taxes and create jobs? Is there anything else a politician is supposed to do? I’m not holding my breath. What can you do? Simple: Learn how to drive.
We are very fortunate in Canada to have many good advanced driver training programs.
The skills they teach are basic to the task of driving.
Fortunately, driving well is not at all difficult, nor does it require much in the way of athletic skill.
You just need to learn a few proper techniques. Sit properly. Look in the right places. Be aware. Adjust your side-view mirrors correctly. Understand how your car behaves.
Oh yes, drive sober, untired, undistracted and belted. Jim Kenzie is the chief auto reviewer for Toronto Star Wheels. To reach Wheels Editor Norris McDonald: nmcdonald@thestar.ca