Girl Killed by Air Bag Was Properly Belted

Government highway safety investigators said Wednesday a 5-year-old girl who was killed last month by an expanding air bag was wearing a seat belt properly.

The finding marks the first time the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has concluded that a child properly buckled into a seat was killed by an air bag in a low-speed accident.

At least 26 children and 19 drivers have been killed by air bags, according to NHTSA. But before Wednesday the agency said it appeared the children either were unbelted or improperly belted.

Ricardo Martinez, the head of the agency, said NHTSA now believes that children up to age 12 should ride in the back seat, USA Today reported.

Frannie Ambrose of Nashville said she was driving through an intersection on Sept. 12 in her 1996 Grand Caravan minivan when a motorist ran a stop sign and hit the right front of the vehicle.

The accident killed her daughter, Frances Ambrose, 5, who was wearing both her lap and shoulder belt in the passenger seat, NHTSA said. The girl was knocked unconscious by the air bag and never woke up, her parents said.

“I couldn’t figure out why she was unconscious because the air bag was supposed to save her life, not kill her,” said Frannie Ambrose, who along with her 2-year-old child--strapped in a child seat in the back--were not injured.

Albert Ambrose, the dead girl’s father, said the accident has “shot a hole right through” him. “She was our middle child, full of energy and fun.”

The detailed report on the accident by the NHTSA investigation team became public on the morning parents of children killed by air bags were scheduled to meet with Martinez.

The 18 parents, part of the Parents’ Coalition for Air Bag Warnings, support the agency’s proposed rule that larger, more colorful air bag warning labels should be required in vehicles. However, they believe the labels should say that belted or unbelted children can be killed by passenger-side air bags.

The labels proposed by NHTSA say unbelted children can be killed by an air bag.

“That’s the wrong message,” says Robert Sanders, a leader of the group whose 7-year-old daughter was killed by an air bag last year in the Baltimore area.

The group also wants the agency to require auto makers to send notices to parents telling them of the danger of air bags and that they should put their children in the back seat.

“We’re here to help out the people who have their children sitting in a passenger seat where there’s an air bag,” said Albert Ambrose.

NHTSA spokesmen said the meeting was private and the agency had no comment because officials were in the process of rule making on air bags.

In August, NHTSA proposed the dramatic new warning labels and the option of an on-off switch for passenger-side air bags. The agency’s final rule is expected this year.