Airbags for trucks

I don't believe you!!!

You are just another in a long line of well meaning fools meddling in something that you know nothing about.

 

Some of the conspiracy wacko type folks say that there are larger numbers of air bag related injuries and even deaths than what the public knows.
My Volvo does have an airbag, so in some model trucks they are currently available.

Perhaps more importantly Volvo, with their steel cab, spends more on engineering for safety as related to crashes and rollovers than any other manufacturer that I am aware of. Try searching for Volvo crash videos and some of what drivers have survived thru is amazing.

 

That's a good point about steering wheel airbags & airride seats not lining up everytime Canuck..

Drivers sitting in the floor might have to put on their hard hats to drive, or a helmet, if these airbags become a new regulation..

But think about those drivers in the J.B Hunt position!!!
They'll have to wear a hind-catchers cup driving around like that, or risk getting a blast to the balls with that seat all the way up..

 

While I understand your feelings--and am deeply sorry for the pain you/your family has suffered--I am looking at this from a slightly different perspective--
The highway reauthorization bill--is a spending bill--intended to budget monies meant to improve/repair/add to infrastructure--It is a well know fact--the easiest way to get money etc(pork--special interest)is to tack an amendment on to a spending bill--this is one of the biggest problems with the way OUR federal works today--since spending bills must be passed--it is a common practice for a legislator to tack his/her pet project on. This is a practice many have been trying to stop for years--it is how many absurd laws--and new regulations sneak through under the radar--can you say unfunded federal mandate?
Add to this the cost of already doing business--purchasing new equipment--and insurance rates in particular--tell a mfg--they have to add something--that costs them 5 dollars--and watch the retail price jump $500!--Now add to that the fact that they(congress)could:
A-phase the program in--insurance companies(since it is now a mandate)instead of offering discounts for a safety device--now charge more if you do not have it! Either way a very difficult situation for any small business owner!
B-Mandate it in a certain time period--now I either have to retrofit my equipment--or buy all new--either way I may just have to close--due to a cost I can neither cover/nor pass along in additional charges
In this cast think C-A-R-B--and my 5K+upgrade expense--and now probably the forced obsolessence of my perfectly good equipment--or the case of EOBR--large fleets already using qualcomm etc--love it--they already have the stuff--small fleet owner etc---a cost they cannot justify...
We already have enough rules/regs--that continue to erode our bottom lines with no way to recover the costs--
Again I AM ALL FOR SAFETY--and understand(all to well)your frustration/anger about your situation--but I humbly suggest this--and this method is now the answer...

 

Post of the year!!!

 

Shippers and carriers have beached at mfg's for years to lighten the trucks so they can add payload. There is simply no iron in todays truck hence no protection. This factor will get worse as the ATA is currently lobbying congress to allow 88k gross loads.

I don't believe they would work...... the seatbelt is going do 99% of what can be done and from that point no airbag is keep the cab from crushing you or the engine coming in the cab.

JMO

 

And MAYBE 2 out of 100 crashed you've seen an airbag would have made even a marginal difference. If a truck is driving without a trailer and hits a solid wall MAYBE it would matter. But hit the same wall at 55 pulling a trailer and that worthless bag is just going to slow your face down before everything behind you drives it through the dash. We do not need another stupid rule. I believe it's an option when you order a truck (at least through Paccar) lets leave it at that.

So you mean you don't think any of these drivers would have benefited from an airbag?



Maybe we need air bags behind your head also?



This guy needed an airbag coming from the passenger seat to help him, maybe we should get those also?


If he would have had an airbag in the front of the trailer when he slammed into the back of a stopped truck at highway speed this coil wouldn't have crushed him and the cab!

P.S before anyone says it....... no amount of chains are going to stop a coil when you slam into a solid object at 60. If the coil didn't move the pin would have broken off and the trailer would have wiped the cab out. The only new rule we need is drivers (and cops) should be required to have common sense. No amount of safety rules or laws can and will ever overcome stupidity.

 

The fact is that no one can make everything safe...Morons think they can by mandating every possible piece of #### saftey option known to man and yet in spite of all of this junk that they make us install and try to make us use people die every day in crashes while wearing seatbelts and being smashed in the face by an airbag just before they die.

You can legislate all the saftey equipment in the world and stupid people will still find a way to kill themselves and others with vehicles because you can't legislate common sense into people!

 

Oh I know all these stupid rules do is make everything inconvenient for those of us who aren't stupid. Ever drive past a construction site and see all the workers wearing hard hats.....Even when it's a vacant field with nothing built on it yet? Yep you can thank the safety police for that stupid rule. A guy here ran off the road in his car and hit a guy on a lawnmower in his yard. Killed the guy on the mower which was a tragic accident but the safety police weren't happy with just calling it what it was. So they insisted the speed limit be lowered in this area (small town about 10 houses). Now the speed limit is 50mph instead of 55......I know I feel safer. No way you'd die getting hit at 50, it's that last 5mph that gets ya! We all went to school with idiots like this, now it just seems they're in charge.