It seems substantially fewer Americans are interested in switches that can turn off their air bags than federal regulators or the automakers expected.
Since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began taking applications in November, only 21,000 vehicle owners have sought permission to have the cut-off switches installed in their vehicles, according to agency spokesman Phil Frame. Fewer than 900 Illinois motorists have sought applications, he added. In Indiana, 420 drivers want to turn off their air bags, and there have been 354 requests from Wisconsin.
The number of applications is only a tiny fraction of the approximately 71 million vehicles in the U.S. that have air bags, including more than 49 million vehicles with driver- and passenger-side bags, Frame noted.
“We didn’t know what to expect, but the volume of requests is smaller than we anticipated,” Frame said. Moreover, the number of applications to NHTSA seeking approval for switch installation has been dropping in recent weeks.
Request forms have been available from NHTSA and car dealerships since November. Car dealers have been allowed to install the switches since Jan. 8.
“It’s definitely a lot less than we originally expected,” said Lynda Christoff, a spokeswoman for Ford Motor Co. Officials from General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Corp. agreed.
Christoff noted Ford has “depowered” the air bags on the company’s 1998 models so they no longer deploy with the same intensity as earlier versions, which critics contend are potentially lethal. According to NHTSA statistics, air bags have killed 94 passengers, many of them youngsters riding unbelted in the front passenger seat. Air bags also are credited with saving almost 3,000 lives since they went into widespread use at the beginning of the decade, but air-bag related deaths forced NHTSA to establish the rules for exemptions.
Automakers and the regulator admit there has been some confusion about who can ask for the switches–only motorists who can’t sit more than 10 inches from the air bag or who have an unusual medical condition or who regularly use their vehicle to car pool children.
GM, Ford, Chrysler and Toyota Motor Corp. also have begun installing cut-off switches on pickup trucks with no back seat as NHTSA has recommended.
If a motorist does ask for permission, chances are good he will receive the exemption, Frame added. NHTSA estimates installing the switch should cost $100 to $200.
However, the number of cut-off switches that have been installed on vehicles is substantially smaller than 21,000 requests, Frame said. For one thing, many car dealers have refused to install the switch, said David Sloan of the Chicago Automobile Trade Association. “It’s just too big of a risk,” Sloan added.
Ford and GM, which account for more than half of the new vehicles sold in the U.S., have said they are willing to relieve their dealers of legal responsibility for the switches. However, both have said the dealers are responsible for improper installation.
Automakers aren’t pressing the dealers or offering any incentive to install the cut-off switches. “We have taken a neutral position on whether they should install the switches. We want them to make that decision themselves,” said GM spokesman Kyle Johnson.
Michael Cook, the CATA’s chairman who operates dealerships in Arlington Heights and Harvard, noted the association’s attorneys have advised local dealers not to handle the switches.
“This is just a lawsuit waiting to happen,” added Cook. “What happens when you get into some of these second- and third-generation trades” where the buyer assumes they are getting a vehicle with an air bag that will deploy in a crash?
If a customer asks for the cut-off switch, Cook prefers to explain the vehicle’s safety equipment and how, if a seat belt is used, the chances of being injured by an air bag are remote, Cooks added.
