November 5, 2014

Summary Writing: Nothing Positive in Airbags News

By Hanifa Febsayana Khoirunnisa 1406568910

Faculty of Nursing, University of Indonesia, Undergreduate Regular Program 2014
Email: hanifafebsayana@yahoo.co.id

Nothing Positive in Airbags News, an article written by Jack Hagerty, states

that there can be nothing positive about the current revelations of tragedy concerning
airbags. Hagerty objects the usage of airbags due psychological aspect regarding
discomfort of airbags tendencies as pyrotechnic device. Also, Hagerty claims there are
some technical shortcomings from airbags, such as it is designed for the single-impact
straight frontal collision, have limited range of operation, do not work well unless in
specific position, designed to work with the average adult, it has caused many classes
of injury, and there is the issue of disposal. To be fair, Hagerty compares damage cause
by seat belts. However, there is no case where someone was killed by a belt in the
accident that they would have otherwise survived had they not been wearing the belt.
This fact is supported with seat belt adjustment to properly fit anyone. When the flaws
in the system began to appear, such as no protection in side and corner impacts, the
response was typical bureaucratic defensiveness by mandating more of what doesnt
work in the form of side airbags. In conclusion, airbags as a government-mandated
system, is both flawed and of limited effectiveness. Airbags replace an existing belt
system that was superior in every way, yet manually fastened seat belts are required for
the airbags to have even their minimal effectiveness.

University of Indonesia 1