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

To: LAWREAL who wrote (1580)	4/20/1999 10:01:00 AM
From: JB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1671

Just came back from a business trip, so here's a belated article from the Miami Herald, dated 4/8/99........ Washington -(AP) - Side air bags on 1999 Ford models greatly reduce the likelihood of serious head injury to the driver in crash tests, a safety research institute said Tuesday. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which is financed by insurers, crashed two 1999 model Lincoln Town Cars by hurtling them sideways into an upright pole that smashed into the driver's door. In the first test, the car had no side air bag and the head injuries sustained by the dummy representing the driver were severe enough to cause death in an actual collision, institute president Brian O'Neill said. In the second test, the side air bag cushioned the dummy's head from the force of the crash, making it "survivable despite the [crash's] severity", O'Neill said. Side air bags are standard equipment on the 1999 Lincoln and Town Car. Ford has started offering them with head protection as options in front seats of some of its more popular and less expensive vehicles: Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer sport utility vehicles, Ford Windstar minivans and the Jaguar XJ8 and X200. Side air bags with head protection also are on BMWs,Saabs,Volvos and some Mercedes models. Some automakers offer side air bags that protect the chest area rather than the head. Ford's side air bags are designed to do both, deploying from the side of the seat and inflating upward and forward, said Ford spokeswomen Jennifer Flake. Manufacturers such as BMW and Volvo also are designing side air bags to try to prevent passengers from being ejected out a window during rollover crashes. Slightly less than a third of all fatal motor vehicle crashes are side-impact crashes, and most of the deaths they cause involve head injuries, according to a government database of fatal accidents from 1993-1996. The institute also said side air bags could help with the mismatch among vehicles when larger vehicles such as sport utility vehicles or pickups crash into the side of cars. Studies show those accidents mostly kill the passengers in the smaller vehicles, the car. This is old news and, there is no mention of who are the manufacturers of the side air bags for prevention of head injuries. In the meantime, SMU's stock is tanking lower than ever. Is this a hopeless situation for the Longs? JB