Auto News 5

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) would like to allow dealers to retrofit vehicles with on-off switches for airbags for another three years. Five hundred such requests are reportedly made to the agency every year.

During the 1990s, a number of casualties have been directly attributed to airbag deployment, especially among unrestrained, out-of-position children. It also happened in relatively low speed crashes, and to some small women.

Automakers eventually adopted sophisticated airbags that sense if a small person is sitting in a front seat and deactivates the airbag if not enough weight is detected.

In 1997, the NHTSA approved a regulation allowing dealers and repair businesses to install retrofit on-off switches for frontal airbags in vehicles - with prior written consent by the agency, of course. However, that rule will expire on August 31st, 2012.

Despite all the latest technological advancements in occupant protection, some individuals remain at risk. According to the NHTSA, there have been two confirmed airbag-related adult fatalities in model year 2004 or later vehicles.


_{Source: Detroit News}