A few remarks about Jay's comments and some of those contained in other
postings . . .
At 20:28 9/22/02, Jay Maynard wrote:
<paramedic mode>
Anyone who depends solely on their airbag to protect them in an accident
will find out, the hard way, that it's no substitute for a seat belt. I've
cut a couple of folks out of cars with deployed airbags who didn't survive
to learn from their experience. By comparison, I've never cut someone's seat
belt to extricate them, and only unbuckled three patients, two of whom were
merely too nervous to do it themselves, all in 17 years of volunteer EMS.
The seat belt with shoulder harness were clearly, without doubt, the single
safety item on my vehicle that provided the greatest protection from
serious injury (or worse). I have a very nice bruise on my collar bone to
show for it. It is the second occasion one has done so. The first was in
late 1969 when I was in the right front passenger seat in a 1967-1969 GMC
van with the engine mounted between the seats and flat front (made prior to
designing them with a "nose"). The driver was a very close friend dating
to Junior High years who is now an Aerospace Surgeon. Obviously, he was
wearing one too. Both of us sustained *zero* injuries. The investigating
officer commented he had already marked his report with both of use wearing
belts as he routinely found unbelted front seat van occupants outside the
van after being propelled through the windshield. Made me a
_True_Believer_ and I've had _Religion_ about it ever since. A
contributing safety feature was partial collapsing (telescoping) of the
steering column on the engine side of the firewall although. I am still
uncertain if the steering wheel would have struck me had it stayed full
length, but it did prevent closer deployment of the airbag.
Regarding airbags . . .
The initial airbags and the government requirements for them likely
provided some additional protection in higher speed collisions that involve
significant passenger compartment collapse and much greater
deceleration. These were the type in my 1995 sedan. IIRC they were
required to keep an unbelted 200 pound male from striking the windshield,
steering wheel and/or dashboard but do not recall at what vehicle speed or
deceleration rate. These systems became quickly noted for causing more
harm than good at lower speeds, especially with smaller, lighter weight
occupants that sit closer to the steering wheel and dashboard where the
bags are located. In my collision with a seatbelt and shoulder harness,
airbag deployment did very little, if anything, except strain my left elbow
(left hand high on wheel) and produce significant abrasions on my left arm
(through a dress shirt) and my left hand. The bag material is a man-made
form of coarsely woven burlap; it's not smooth!
The new systems, and I do not know model year of implementation, now have
at least two deployment modes and greater restrictions on when they
deploy. For example, they should not deploy during a vehicle roll-over if
that is all that occurs. There is also a minimum speed threshold for
partial inflation and a second, higher speed threshold for full
inflation. This is grossly simplified; numerous parameters go into the
hard-wired "decision-making" regarding non-deployment, partial and full
deployment. A complex set of conditions are continuously monitored and
combinations of factors must be in certain states for bag deployment.
Other Vehicular News:
I now have a new "tail-end of 2002 model year" sedan. Picked it up Friday
afternoon. We were planning on replacing the 7-year old sedan I had been
using some time about March or April of next year. Didn't make economic
sense to buy a direct replacement only to dump it in six months, but went
through real pain finding one my better half spec'ed out. Finally found
one at a dealer 250 miles away at the far west end of the next state west
of us and had a dealer here go get it. She is AR about **exactly** what
color and options she wants and doesn't want, even though I am its primary
driver. It's to prevent me from being an embarrasment to the family.
;-)
Vehicle electronics have made a quantum leap over the past 7
years. Similar to comparing the OM system with the current
Wunder-Bricks. Had to spend about 40 minutes paging through an entire
section of the owner's manual to ***program*** the vehicle with custom
settings. Worse than programming a VCR. Failure to do this and using its
default settings easily results in unexpected behaviors of the door lock,
alarm and sound sub-systems making the vehicle seem like it's possessed by
poltergeists: locking and unlocking of doors at will, unexpected
ear-splitting alarm triggering, and an audio system that mysteriously
changes stations and volume settings. For the benefit of European list
members, the radio has the North American version of RDS which includes
automatic frequency changing to maintain the same program type.
Marginal OM content:
It's the new, extra-large, self-propelled, rolling camera bag and has more
than enough space to hold all my OM, and other gear. Haven't made any
flora macros recently, but intend to before next weekend.
-- John
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