Airbags (also called supplementary restraint systems or SRS) are fitted to motor vehicles to prevent or reduce injury to a vehicle’s occupants in an accident. In the event of an accident, sensors trigger the airbag/s which inflate instantaneously to protect occupants from impact with the interior of the vehicle.

Airbags are a major advance in protecting people from death or injury in road crashes— possibly the most important advance in secondary safety since the introduction of seat belts. Because of this Transport SA strongly advises against the removal of airbags. Reasons for Disablement or Removal of Airbags

• Some car owners may want to fit an aftermarket “sports” steering wheel. This involves removal of the steering wheel which houses the airbag.

• Other people want to disable airbags so that they will not activate (deploy) in a crash.

There have been reports from the United States, of people being killed or injured by airbags.

• Other people want to avoid paying the high replacement cost of the airbag/s.

• Child restraints fitted in a front seating position which require the air-bag to be non operational.

Research has not found evidence of anyone being killed by an airbag in Australia. On the other hand, at least one driver has been killed in a car with a disabled airbag. This driver might not have died if an airbag had deployed.

The fatalities in the United States have generally involved young children or short adults, seated too close to the airbag when it deployed. The potential for airbags to injure occupants is greater for American airbags than for Australian airbags because the American airbags are bigger and faster deploying.

They are designed to protect both belted and unbelted occupants whereas most people in Australia wear seat belts. Airbags in Australia are designed to work in conjunction with seat belts, so they are less aggressive in operation.

They are quite safe provided that :

• all occupants wear their seat belts; and

• small children travel in the back seat. (Never put a baby capsule or a child seat in the front seat of a car with a passenger airbag.)

Airbags in Australia are very effective at saving lives and preventing injury. A study of large Australian cars involved in serious frontal collisions shows:

• In the cars without airbags 35 per cent of drivers suffered head and facial injuries from contact with the steering wheel.

• In the cars with airbags, no driver suffered head or facial injury from contact with the stering wheel.

Replacement cost of an airbag is generally between $500 and $1500.

Airbag cost should be onsidered an integral part of the cost of repairing a vehicle and restoring it to roadworthy condition following an accident - although generally a collision severe enough to trigger the airbags will severely damage the vehicle. Almost all vehicles in crashes this bad are insurance write-offs.