NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Parents of children who died when airbags inflated during low-speed accidents met Wednesday with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) chief Dr. Ricardo Martinez. The parents are urging the government agency to make airbags safer.
"People think that if they buy a car with a passenger-side airbag, they are taking care of their children," said Robert Sanders, whose 7-year-old daughter died from airbag-related injuries suffered during an accident. "In fact, the opposite is true." Sanders gave his comment to MSNBC after he and 17 other parents met with Martinez in a closed-door meeting in Washington on Wednesday.
Sanders came out of the meeting saying, "I did have a general sense of confidence that they gave us a close listening."
An NHTSA statement released October 3 says that although "airbags saved 1,136 lives from 1986 to 1995... the agency also finds that passenger-side airbags increased the fatality risk to child passengers [ranging] from infants to about age 12."
Sanders and the other parents are also concerned about the case of 5-year-old Frances Ambrose who was wearing both lap and shoulder seat belts when an accident caused an airbag to inflate, perhaps causing her death.
Ambrose is the first child whose death may be due to an airbag where the child was properly strapped in by seat belts, according to the NHTSA. In an August 1 press release, the NHTSA said airbags were dangerous only to "children not properly buckled up." An NHTSA spokesman said Thursday, this supposition may need re-examination in light of the Ambrose case.
NHTSA officials are still investigating to see if airbags indeed caused her death, although a list of child-fatalities released earlier in October does list Ambrose as 'restrained'.
The parents' group is calling for a variety of possible means to make airbags safer for kids. A cutoff switch to disable passenger-side airbags, large warning stickers placed on dash or visor, and the development of 'smart' airbags, which can sense the size and location of passengers, are all being debated, according to the NHTSA.
In the meantime, NHTSA stressed again in an October 3 statement that "the immediate solution [is] placing children in the rear seat." Martinez admitted, however, that even this simple advice may not be enough. "In recent focus group surveys, NHTSA researchers encountered resistance by parents to putting their children in the back seat, even when the danger of airbag deployment was explained," according to the agency's October 3 statement. Martinez feels, given this information, the agency and the auto industry need to come up with other solutions.
Martinez has also stated that in particular, "infants in rear-facing child safety seats should never be placed in the front seat." When airbags deploy, the force of inflation can cause fatal head injuries in infants kept in rear-facing child safety seats.
Members of the auto industry and the public have proposed over 90 suggestions for improvements in airbag safety, say the NHTSA. An ongoing study is underway to come up with new safety guidelines to be released at an, as yet, unspecified date.
Some confusion resulted from press reports Wednesday that the NHTSA had undergone a "reversal" of its position on the age limit at which children should be allowed to sit in the front seat. One source claimed that the official policy was changing the age from 5 or 6 years to 12 years. But a spokesperson at the NHTSA told Reuters Health eLine that, as far back as May, Martinez said, "The safest place for children of all ages is the back seat."
