ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, November 18, 1996 TAG: 9611180138
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Trying to prevent more child deaths from airbags, highway safety officials are exploring whether weight sensors could be used to shut off airbags when small children occupy passenger seats.
And, in a large publicity push to protect children, some of the nation's largest insurers and other companies are mailing millions of pamphlets telling customers children are safest in the back seat of cars with dual airbags.
Insurers are joining with other companies and medical groups before the busy holiday traveling season to get a basic message out to their millions of customers: Airbag safety means buckle up, children in back.
As the number of youngsters killed by airbags mounts - 30 children's deaths are attributed to the devices - officials are pushing automakers to come up with a viable solution.
Manufacturers warn that highly sophisticated sensing systems will not appear in airbags until the next century. Those systems would use technologies such as infrared or ultrasound to detect passengers who are out of proper position on the seat and automatically adjust airbag deployment to protect them.
But for now, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is considering whether a weight-sensor device used in German luxury cars to prevent airbag deployment in an unoccupied seat can be adapted to save lives. The goal would be to shut off an airbag for a person weighing 66 pounds or less, the weight of an average 10-year-old.
Mercedes-Benz uses a pressure-sensitive mat in the passenger seat of its 1996 E-class automobiles. The mat sends an electronic airbag shutoff signal when the seat is unoccupied. BMW has used a similar mat in all its vehicles since January 1995.
The current mat, intended only to detect the vacant seat, sends a signal to prevent the bag from deploying when the seat holds less than 26 pounds. It was installed not for safety but to avoid the hefty cost of replacing an unnecessarily inflated airbag.
But the safety administration wants to know if the system can be adapted to prevent child deaths.
``We're interested in technology that can be brought to the marketplace soon,'' said William Boehly, the agency's associate administrator for research and development.
Engineers from International Electronics & Engineering, maker of the Mercedes mat, are working on pressure-sensitive mats that can detect broad weight categories - a child, for example, or a slender female or an average male.
But John Abraham, director of sales for IEE Automotive USA, said auto companies have not decided to use the weight-category design yet because they are waiting to see if the federal administration adopts 66 pounds or another national standard for air bag suppression.
``We're still taking a look at weight sensing, but we believe it is a very good short-term approach,'' said Dave Giroux, safety spokesman at Ford Motor Co.
Automakers agree that picking a cutoff weight is not simple. Not only are seats made differently, but mats register an individual's weight differently if he is reclining or has his feet on the floor.
``We are hesitant to rush into technology that might be pretty good. Pretty good is not good enough,'' said Chrysler spokesman Jason Vines.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 linesby CNB