All About Trucks Information
Air bag technology has been a present safety feature in new cars since it was introduced in the early nineteen seventies, and its use has certainly become more prevalent as research has shown how positively airbag installation affects the survival rate of accident victims. Consistently voted one of the world’s safest automobiles, Volvo truck introduced the first line of production autos providing side airbags in 1995. Since their introduction, research results and real world data has influenced the expansion of side airbag installation, so that they are now standard in a select number of vehicles by certain manufacturers and are available worldwide as an added option in over one hundred currently produced vehicles.
Side air bags, especially those that protect passenger and drivers’ heads, have been shown to lower fatality risks for all age groups, reducing driver deaths when struck on the driver’s side by nearly 37 percent. Head-protecting side air bags are especially effective in automobile accidents involving cars and the much taller, highly popular SUVs that have flooded the market in the last couple of decades. When higher riding vehicles such as pickup trucks and SUVs strike an auto, often the heads of driver and passengers in the auto are especially vulnerable because they are often times at the height of the taller SUV or pickups bumpers due to the height difference that is present. Side air bags that include head protection are more effective in preventing fatal injury than the use of airbags that provide cushion for the torso alone and are being installed at higher rates each year in automobiles and SUVs. One type of vehicle that is not seeing higher installation rates of side air bags for reasons unknown is the common utility pickup truck. Currently, over 80 percent of new automobile and SUVs offer head protecting side impact airbags as either standard or optional, yet fewer than half of production pickups offer them as even an optional safety feature. Overwhelming findings from ongoing research should influence pickup truck manufacturers to more avidly install them in the next few years.
As safety standards increase for American auto manufacturers, accident victims will continue to benefit from more adequate protection from their cars and trucks. In order to keep drivers and families safe, ongoing research and development of this and other precautionary technologies is essential. Often times, even the most up to date safety features can fail to protect adequately in an accident situation, and injuries still occur. Protecting drivers and passengers after an accident is the responsibility of an excellent accident lawyer, and it is always in a victim’s best interest to contact one should an injury occur.
