Science+Notes.

//Are airbags important?//

Even with seatbelts you arent entirely safe. If a vehicle was to crash into your car, seatbelts wouldnt keep you safe. According to Newtons First Law, if you stop suddenly, you would still go forward. So in a car, airbags form a soft pillow so that you dont fly into the windsheild.

The airbag because popular in the 1990s when the manufacterors were requried to install automatic seatbelts or airpags in passenger cars. Since 1999, the federal government has required frontal airbags for protection from head-on colisions. By 1995, all cars and a good amount of light trucks had driver airbags. In 1997, most had passenger airbags also.

NHTSA estimates that more than 22,000 people are alive today because of frontal airbags. The deaths in cars that have frontal airbags are 26% lower among drivers and 14% lower among passengers compared to vehicles __without__ the frontal airbags. Deaths for unbelted people in frontal crashes are reduced by 32% for drivers and 23% for passengers. NHTSA estimates that the combination of an airbag plus a seatbelt reduces the risk of serious head injury by 85% compared with a 60% reduction for seatbelts alone.