Head injuries are a leading cause of death in side impacts, but until recently, only those who could afford a Mercedes-Benz, BMW or Volvo got extra protection for their noggins.
That will change this fall as air bags that protect the head become more common and when General Motors’ 2001 Saturns become the least-expensive vehicles, starting at $11,035 (including $465 for delivery), available with dedicated head air bags designed to reduce serious injuries in side impacts.
The Saturn head-curtain will be a $325 option on the 2001 Saturn S-Series (sedan, wagon and coupe) and a $395 option on the larger L-Series (sedan and wagon).
An aggressive rollout of the head curtain is planned for other GM vehicles after the 2001 model year, said Terry Rhadigan, manager for safety communications for GM, but he declined to provide details.
Curtain-type air bags also will make their way onto sport-utility vehicles.
Side-impact crashes are the second largest cause of fatal injuries, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
And head air bags are a big step forward for side-impact protection, said Brian O’Neill, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group largely funded by the insurance industry and based in Arlington, Va.
Occupants are more vulnerable to injury in such a collision because there is only the metal of the door and a few inches of space separating them from an intruding object or vehicle, unlike the front, which can absorb crash energy before it reaches passengers.
“There has not been a single documented case of a side air bag killing or seriously injuring someone in a side crash. There is less energy in side air bags than frontal air bags because they have less volume. And there is very little crash space in the side of a vehicle to absorb the energy of a collision. So we have to create it; that’s what side air bags do,” said O’Neill.
An increasing number of vehicles have side-impact air bags, which protect primarily the chest from the seat or door panel. A few have separate systems dedicated to protecting the head. Some manufacturers, however, have added an upper section to the chest air bag to protect the head.
Ford Motor Co. has led this safety charge with head-and-chest side air bags. They are standard equipment on Lincolns and optional on Ford and Mercury models. The price depends on the model, but it’s around $300.
DaimlerChrysler has head-and-chest side air bags as an option in some 2001 models, such as the redesigned Dodge and Chrysler mini-vans.
Dedicated head air bags are located along the edge of the roof. (Vehicles with this type of air bag have separate side air bags to protect the chest.) These come in several configurations. Some, such as BMW’s, are “sausage-like.” Those from Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and now Saturn are curtains.
DaimlerChrysler has put curtain-type head air bags in the 2001 Stratus and Sebring sedans and plans to have them in most of its 2002 sport-utility vehicles and pickups. Toyota’s full-size sport-utility vehicle, the 2001 Sequoia, will be the first Toyota to feature curtain-shield air bags.
Some curtains protect front-seat occupants only; others protect those in the front and rear. In the Saturns, for example, the head curtain protects only the front-seat occupants in the smaller S-Series, because of its older design. The L-Series curtain protects front- and rear-seat occupants.
Head air bags can be particularly important when a truck or sport-utility hits a passenger car because the hood of the truck is likely to be at about the height of the car occupant’s head, O’Neill said. Head air bags try to move the head out of harm’s way or get in between the head and harm’s way.
Crash tests conducted by the institute have shown that bags designed to protect the head can make a significant difference.
When a 1998 Lincoln Town Car without such a system was tested, the impact registered on the crash-test dummy’s head was 5,390 points, a force high enough to kill. When the test was done with a 1999 Town Car with a chest-and-head bag, the impact was 376. Scores of 1,000 or higher indicate a serious head injury is likely.
In 1997, when the institute crashed a BMW 5-Series without an air bag to protect the head, the score was 4,720. With BMW’s sausage-type air bag, it was 620.
“They are both good results,” said O’Neill. “These air bags can take a crash that would have caused a fatal head injury and turn it into one with almost a zero risk of a significant head injury.”
However, O’Neill said it is too soon to know how the curtain or sausage-type head air bags compare in effectiveness with the head-and-chest bags.
O’Neill says the insurance institute tends to favor separate systems to protect the head and chest because they may be safer.
“If you’ve got a combined bag, you need more gas and need more time to inflate it because you have more gas going into a single bag as opposed to two separate inflators. But this is a hypothesis. In the crash tests so far both technologies look very good. And right now they are both much better than not having anything.”
To reduce fatalities when sport-utility vehicles roll over, Ford is introducing curtains that will automatically cover the windows as the vehicle flips as an option for its 2002 Ford Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer. The company expects to have them in all its sport-utilities by 2005.
The bags, which will deploy between the passengers and windows, are intended to keep the occupants in the vehicle and keep their heads from striking the windows. And it is hoped that the bags will prevent outside objects from entering the vehicle.
One of the problems with rollovers is that even a belted occupant’s arm or head might be thrust out the window, said O’Neill. The curtains should prevent such partial ejections, and that is “clearly an important step forward” for safety, O’Neill said.
Ford’s rollover curtains come down from the headliner just above the windows and cover the windows from the A-pillar at the windshield to the C-pillar behind the rear door.
They remain inflated for up to six seconds, longer than conventional air bags, to extend the protection in case the vehicle rolls several times.
Approximately half of all sport-utility fatalities involve rollovers, and these deaths often involve people being ejected from the vehicle, said Helen Petrauskas, vice president of Environmental and Safety Engineering for Ford.
And occupants thrown from the vehicle are up to 10 times as likely to be killed or seriously hurt than people who remain inside.
AT THE HEAD OF THEIR CLASSES
These are the 2001 model vehicles that offer head protection:
BMW: A sausage-type head air bag is standard across the lineup except for 3-Series convertibles, all Z3 variants and the Z8.
Chrysler: Curtain-type head air bags are an option for the 2001 Sebring. Head-and-chest air bags are an option for the 2001 PT Cruiser, redesigned mini-vans, and all LH vehicles (300M, Intrepid, LHS and Concorde).
Dodge: Curtain-type head air bags are an option for the 2001 Stratus. Head-and-chest air bags are an option for the redesigned mini-vans and Neon.
Ford: Head-and-chest air bags are an option in high-volume vehicles such as the Windstar, Explorer, Focus and Taurus. Curtain-type rollover protection will be available in the 2002 Explorer.
Jaguar: Head-and-chest air bags are standard across the lineup for the 2001 model year.
Lexus: Curtain-type head air bags are standard on 2001 LS430 and GS430.
Lincoln: Head-and-chest air bags are standard in the Continental, LS, Navigator and Town Car.
Mercedes-Benz: Curtain air bags are standard on E-Class sedan and wagon, S-Class, CL coupe and C-Class.
Mercury: Head-and-chest air bags are available as an option in high-volume vehicles such as the Cougar, Mountaineer and Sable. Curtain-type rollover protection will be available in the 2002 Mountaineer.
Saab: Head-and-chest air bags are standard across the lineup.
Saturn: Curtain air bags are optional in the S- and L-Series.
Toyota: Curtain air bags are an option in the 2001 Sequoia.
Volvo: Curtain air bags are standard across the lineup, except for the S40 and V40, which have head-and-chest air bags.
