Restraint effectiveness, occupant ejection from cars, and fatality reductions.

The effectiveness of air cushion restraint systems, or airbags, in preventing fatalities is estimated by assuming that they do not affect ejection probability, and protect only in frontal, or near frontal, crashes with impact-reducing effectiveness equal to that of lap/shoulder belts. In order to compute airbag effectiveness, lap/shoulder belt effectiveness and the fraction of fatalities preventable by eliminating ejection are estimated using Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) data. Ejection prevention is found to account for almost half of the effectiveness of lap/shoulder belts (essentially all for lap belts only). Airbag effectiveness is estimated as (18 +/- 4)% in preventing fatalities to drivers and (13 +/- 4)% to right front passengers. Drivers switching from lap/shoulder belt to airbag-only protection increase their fatality risk by 41%.