New Air Bag Rules to Acknowledge Dangers

New federal car air bag regulations to be issued today will acknowledge that air bags are not the magic safety device once thought and in fact the fast-inflating bags can be fatal to children and small adults. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is weighing rules that include reducing the high speed of bag inflation, mandating bags with dual speeds for slow and high-speed crashes and letting owners deactivate bags. Although they are credited with saving more than 1,100 lives in the last 10 years, air bags are also held responsible for killing at least 30 children and 20 small-statured adults. Bags, which deploy at speeds up to 200 mph, can snap the neck of a child, a small adult or a frail older person. The advocacy group Public Citizen has petitioned the NHTSA to require dual-inflation air bags, which would inflate rapidly in high-speed crashes but slower in less severe crashes.