Originally Posted by
Joe Minton
Since about 1982, automobiles have been, essentially, helmets. When you enter one of these latter-day wonders, your brain & other lesser parts will be protected against many and even most opportunities for other, lesser objects to cause you cranial harm. The reason your car has a rounded & somewhat padded interior is to reduce peak loading on your brain (such as it may be). The main reason for seat belts & shoulder straps is to keep you from hitting the front of your car & to keep you inside where the padded interior might limit how badly you are hurt. --- The main purpose of air bags is to protect those who don't attach their seat belts.
And yet 30,000 people die every year in car accidents just in the United States. So it kind of looks like cars don't make very good helmets. If a car driver wants good head protection, there is a vast selection of effective motorsports helmets. For some reason though, even the most passionate of the helmeteers scoff when driving helmets are mentioned. That's actually pretty damning, when you think it through.
As for the notion that airbags are for people who don't wear seatbelts, the NHTSA notes that seatbelt wearers are 26% less likely to die in a car crash when they also have airbags, and that of the several hundred people killed BY airbags, most were unbelted.