Editorials
Thursday, May 23, 1996
Auto air bags
can be dangerous to children
SINCE air bags were introduced in automobiles nine years ago, they have saved an estimated 1,500 lives. However, in a few cases, the bags actually caused the deaths of children.
More education and tougher enforcement of seat-belt laws are needed, and an industry coalition is calling for both. Because of the growing risk, a coalition of automakers, insurers and safety equipment manufacturers has been formed to spend $10 million on educating motorists and lobbying for stronger seat belt laws.
Transportation Secretary Federico Pena has praised the effort, saying, "Air bags save lives, many lives. But for small children not properly buckled up in cars, they can be deadly."
Pena said 19 children died either because they were unbelted or improperly belted and too close to the dashboard, or sitting in rear-facing infant seats placed in the front passenger seat. The bags, which open in a frontal collision, deploy at a speed of about 200 miles per hour.
Don Defosset, president of Detroit-based Allied Signal Safety Restraint Systems, which manufactures air bags and seat belts, offered these tips:
- Never put a rear-facing infant seat in the front seat of a car with an air bag.
- Understand that the back seat of the car is the safest place for children to ride.
- Make sure all children are properly buckled up.
Most new vehicles come equipped with air bags, and 15 million have passenger-side bags. Air bags will be required for 1998 model automobiles and 1999 light trucks. That is likely to save more lives but could endanger others. Parents should heed warnings and take sensible precautions to protect their children against the hazards of air bags and other dangers.
That advice definitely includes parents in Hawaii. A study by the University of Hawaii's Department of Urban and Regional planning found that usage of child safety seats in the state dropped from 67 percent in 1992 to 37 percent last year. Seventy percent of the seats were used incorrectly, with infants not facing to the rear. Clearly there is plenty of room for more education on this vitally important subject.
Other editorials in brief:
Replacing food stamps
FROM its launching in 1965 to the present day, the federal food stamp program has grown from 631,000 recipients to more than 28 million. Now the state is considering a plan to switch from food stamps to plastic debit cards for the 61,000 recipients here. This looks like a sensible way to make use of modern technology to deal with an age-old problem.
Welfare reform
BOTH President Clinton and Republican challenger Bob Dole, exploiting a widespread perception that the system rewards idleness, are trying to outdo each other in playing to the public's distaste for welfare. The danger of bringing welfare reform into the presidential campaign is that the candidates will go overboard in promising to eliminate abuses - at the expense of the genuinely needy. The best idea is to give the states more authority to find solutions, not to play to the crowd by demanding draconic cutbacks.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited Partnership
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor