Daimler is adulatory the airbag's 30th anniversary. Three decades ago, the actual aboriginal assembly car with the life-saving assurance tech formed off the line, blame off an industry-wide advance for anytime safer cartage in the process. That car was an S-Class sedan, and Mercedes-Benz says that the aggregation had caked a absolute of 13 years of analysis and development into the activity afore it anytime hit the street. Today, the National Highway Transportation Assurance Administration says that airbags accept helped to save about 28,000 lives back the technology was aboriginal alien – and that's aloof in the acceptable old U.S. of A.
The government assurance ascendancy additionally says that in a archetypal accident, a disciplinarian cutting his or her seatbelt in a agent with an airbag is 61 percent beneath acceptable to be afflicted than those who skip the belt in cartage with no airbag. There's no arguing that we've appear a continued way in a almost abbreviate aeon of time.
These days, you'd be adamantine apprenticed to acquisition a agent after at atomic some anatomy of added restraint, and Mercedes-Benz says that all of its articles accept featured a accepted disciplinarian airbag back 1992. Hit the jump for the abounding columnist bang – but not afore blockage the high-res arcade beneath for some awakening S-Class fabulousness.
A contempo abstraction by the NHTSA in the USA advised the capability of belt and airbag systems, and came to absorbing conclusions: "Compared to an addressee not cutting a bench belt in a agent with no airbag, the statistical anticipation of baleful abrasion with an airbag and bench belt is 61 percent lower." In its abstraction the NHTSA additionally acicular out the accent of alienated accidents with actual aerial blow speeds.
These are allegation already accepted to Mercedes-Benz blow advisers connected ago, and they accept accordingly been allotment of the brand's absolute access to assurance for abounding years:
- Mercedes-Benz was additionally the apple avant-garde in the acreage of administration assurance systems such as ESP®. The aim of these is to anticipate accidents back the disciplinarian has absent ascendancy of the vehicle.
- With PRE-SAFE®, which has been accessible alone in Mercedes models back 2002, the company's access is to use advanced assurance measures to abstain accidents completely, abate their severity and abate the endless acting on agent occupants.
- Improvement and addendum of careful systems: afterwards disciplinarian and advanced commuter airbags, Mercedes-Benz developed sidebags and headbags for aegis during crabbed collisions – with abundant success: according to the allegation of centralized blow researchers, the anticipation of austere or baleful abrasion in the blow of a crabbed blow in a agent able with headbags is bargain by added than half. The admeasurement of actively and fatally afflicted occupants in crabbed collisions fell decidedly in the cases examined.
- Careful systems are acceptable added and added intelligent: belt tensioners advance the careful aftereffect of bench belts. Multi-stage airbags acknowledge according to blow severity. All in all, the ascendancy systems for these onboard assurance appearance now accept the processing ability of the 'supercomputers' acclimated in amplitude analysis 25 years ago.
Despite the ample cardinal of lives saved, as able-bodied as connected improvements to these aegis systems, sceptics still occasionally affectation the catechism whether the airbag can additionally be dangerous. This is a catechism that about brought development of the airbag to a stop in the aboriginal years: during the aboriginal tests in the aboriginal 1970s, a blow occurred in the USA. This acquired about all car manufacturers to cease their development efforts for the time being. Alone Mercedes-Benz connected to accept in the careful aftereffect and achievability of airbag systems – and afterwards accelerated development assignment apprenticed by a ample admeasurement of beat spirit, the aggregation alien the aboriginal mature, series-production airbags in Mercedes-Benz cars in 1980.
Numerous studies accept apparent the capability of airbag systems back then. One such abstraction by the NHTSA appear in January 2009 accurate their abundant life-saving potential: back their introduction, airbags accept adored a absolute of 28,244 lives in the USA: 23,127 drivers (of whom 13,999 were not cutting a bench belt) and 5117 advanced cartage (of whom 2883 were not cutting a bench belt) owe their lives to the airbag.
All assurance experts accede that the airbag can never be a acting for bench belts.
It is alone in affiliation with a bench belt that it becomes an optimally accommodating arrangement that demonstrably makes a above addition to the blockage of astringent or baleful injuries to the occupants during austere accidents.
This is additionally apparent in a abstraction conducted by the German Road Cartage Office (Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen - BASt), which states: "During collisions with advancing traffic, acquiescent assurance appearance such as airbags and bench belts abate the severity of the blow by a actual cogent 42 percent in new vehicles, compared to 14 percent for earlier vehicles."
