Should old cars have to be fitted with airbags?

Outside The Beltway
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MSN is reporting that Kevin Hart is going to be sued because he dared to have a car custom built for himself that didn’t have “safety harnesses” or airbags.

Supposedly this is negligence.

My thought is if the driver thought it was dangerous it’s his fault for driving the car.

But the issue is wider than just Hart. How many classic cars don’t have air bags or shoulder harnesses. Are they all going to have to be outfitted with these things by law, or the owners will be sued into penury should one be involved in an accident?

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If it was a modern vehicle it should have to meet the safety standards for the year it was built.

Otherwise, the liability should fall on the owner and anyone who chooses to ride with them.

My family didn’t even own a vehicle with lap belts until the mid 70’s and somehow, we all managed to survive.

3

Safety mandates are ******* ridiculous. Airbags in every ******* quadrant of the car.

And if even one airbag fires in a relatively minor accident, the pretty much totals the car, even if it would otherwise be salvageable.

How about letting the ******* consumer decide how safe they would like to be and let the consumer decide what safety devices they would like.

Seat belts are passive and obviously would be included as the cost is insignificant in the total cost of a new car.

But if a person wants to purchase a car with a driver side airbag only, that should be fine. No airbag at all. Driver and passenger side. Or full vehicle. But the current safety mandates are ******* overdone.

2 Likes
4

I still like the instant hardening foam coccoon “airbags” I saw on a futuristic scifi show years ago.

Now, if they can perfect that and still find a way for us to breathe we’ll have it made. :rofl:

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As to the question of the Original Post: Not only no. HELL NO!

They were designed during a time period air bags in particular weren’t the standard. A buyer purchased the vehicle as is, the responsibility is his.

Incidentally, last time I got into an accident driving a car without airbags, a driver had started a left turn without really looking in that direction to see me coming straight :scream:. We had a front end collision, and the worst I got were bruises on one knee & elbow. Car was totally repaired.

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I was in a head on a few years ago hit by a woman doing nearly eighty down a dirt road in very Rural Colorado.

The airbag pealled my face like a belt sander, blinded me in one eye and broke my hand. Otherwise I walked away without injury thanks to the heavy duty cow catcher I had built and installed.

Absent the airbag I’d have been injury free.

Here Tahoe didn’t quite fare so well.

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Sorry to hear about your airbag injuries. Hope they’re healed now.

Airbags have been pretty high on my overrated list for awhile. I’ve known average height men to get very painful chest abrasions from them.

I’m “5’3’ in my stocking feet, and wish buying a car without an airbag was an option since the worst I sustained in that ‘90 Corolla without one was two bruises.

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I’m short so they hit me exactly in all the wrong places. If they can create an airbag that won’t injure us, in many cases worse than the wreck would without them, they’ll be a great addition.

Airbags will even deploy in low speed crashes and sometimes when you hit a deer or some other non life threatening circumstance which can then lead to a serious wreck due to a blinded driver at highway speed.

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Without the airbag, what would have prevented your face from slamming into the steering wheel, or your head from jerking forward causing a neck injury?

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My cow catcher that sent her truck airborne instead of through the cab decapitating me.

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TIL that a cattle catcher suspends inertia.

2 Likes
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Is your cow catcher angled?

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After receiving the impact, it probably was angled. Before the impact it was probably vertical.

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Not quite but close, there was a slight backward angle. Afterwards there was a significant backward angle that turned it into a launch ramp. The welds and bolts on the uprights actually held, it just bent backwards.

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That’s kinda what I’ve figured. I’ve wondered if mine would do the same if I got hit by a vehicle of roughly equal height.

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So you were traveling at 30mph and the other driver was traveling at 80mph?

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Airbags are overrated, IMO. Here are possible injuries that may take place when an airbag deploys:

Dust and chemicals in the lungs, um, no thank you. I’d love to be able to buy a vehicle without the airbag.

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Its almost impossible to enforce, just make it mandatory for new cars.

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Gosh yet another topic that you have a personal experience with. I am not saying your lying just that were all lucky that once again a thread is created and Charles has a perfectly connected anecdote.

Thank you.

1 Like
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Air Bag save lives this is proven science.