How Does an Airbag Restrain?

In moderate to severe frontal or near frontal collisions, even belted occupants can contact the steering wheel or the instrument panel. In moderate to severe side collisions, even belted occupants can contact the inside of the vehicle.

Airbags supplement the protection provided by safety belts by distributing the force of the impact more evenly over the occupant's body.

Rollover capable roof-rail airbags are designed to help contain the head and chest of occupants in the outboard seating positions in the first and second rows. The rollover capable roof-rail airbags are designed to help reduce the risk of full or partial ejection in rollover events, although no system can prevent all such ejections.

But airbags would not help in many types of collisions, primarily because the occupant's motion is not toward those airbags. See When Should an Airbag Inflate?  for more information.

Airbags should never be regarded as anything more than a supplement to safety belts.

    See also:

    LaCrosse Four-Cylinder in the Market
    The four-cylinder LaCrosse is sure to appeal to some buyers, but there's no way it will put much of a dent in the six-cylinder mix. While roughly 80 percent of the best-selling midsize cars are fo ...

    Empty Directory or Folder
    If a root directory or a folder exists somewhere in the file structure that contains only folders/ subfolders and no compressed files directly beneath them, the player advances to the next folder ...

    Air Vents
    Air Vents Use the louvers located on the air vents to change the direction of the airflow. Use the thumbwheels near the air vents to control the amount of airflow or to shut off the airflow. Oper ...