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Non-Tech : Simula (SMU) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Noblesse Oblige who wrote (1132)	5/31/1998 1:23:00 PM
From: Noblesse Oblige	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1671

To the "thread," Business Week: June 8, 1998 Social Issues: AUTO SAFETY WHEN AIR BAGS AREN'T ENOUGH Detroit has to address new safety issues raised by the success of light trucks It could have been the sort of accident that too often shows up in grim highway fatality statistics. On Jan. 17, a Ford F-150 pickup truck traveling at 50 mph broadsided Linda Rasmussen's 1998 BMW 740il in Plano, Texas. The impact crumpled the BMW but caused only minor injuries to Rasmussen, her 12-year-old daughter Jennifer, and their dog Miko. Their salvation: side air bags. ''It scares me to think what would have happened without them,'' Rasmussen says. Trouble is, most Americans don't own $66,000 luxury sedans packed with the latest in safety innovations. The typical subcompact, by comparison, is no match in a collision for the pickups and sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) that now account for more than a third of all vehicles on U.S. roads. It's an increasingly urgent dilemma for Detroit: The Big Three must make their cars more crashworthy, like BMW's--but their highly profitable trucks may need a safety overhaul, too. ''We're looking more closely than we did in the past at the compatibility of different vehicles,'' says Jacques A. Nasser, president of Ford Motor Co.'s automotive operations. ___________________________________________________________________ Aside from the fact that I will be proudly tooling around town in my new BMW in a few days, it is relevant to point out that a 50 MPH side-impact collision would virtually have to be fatal without head protection. NHTSA is specifically aware of this event, and has been studying the outcome with the intent to release relevant information some time in the near future. And, the head protection in the BMW is from Simula, AKA inflatable tubular structures (ITS). When the American public develops more than nascent awareness that the ability is there to protect them and their families and friends in such events, there will be a groundswell of demand for such products. Certainly, the new feature hasn't hurt BMW, which is prospering and gaining market share as a consequence of its new advertising campaign...the one that emphasizes about a $100 total cost in a $ 65 thousand car. More contracts will come, I think. This is finally getting on to the public's radar screen.