Someone like me, you, and–probably–a lot of other forum members are careful, defensive drivers. I never think about air bags while I’m driving, and I’m willing to bet at least the price of a cup of coffee that you don’t think about them while driving either. Those who are careful drivers have much more to pay attention to, rather than thinking about safety systems.
My last accident–which was caused by my own inattention–was in 1970. I learned–the hard way–from that experience that I had to change my driving style, and I guess that I must have altered things because of having been able to drive for the subsequent 50+ years without even a dented fender. Trust me, I don’t spend any time thinking about safety systems while I am driving.
Then, there are folks unlike you and me. There could be some people who drive recklessly because they think that air bags will save them, but those same fools probably also never bother to secure their seat belts, so when they wind up in a crash, they are likely to be ejected and to not survive the crash. Every week, there are newspaper articles detailing the latest fatalities of teens and 20-somethings who were ejected from vehicles because of both reckless driving and a failure to secure safety belts.
All of this is sort of an automotive version of Survival of the Fittest, if you think about it.
I think hardly anybody drives more recklessly, figuring the airbag wil save them. All those safety features have greatly reduced fatalities. It’s that simple.
You could be right but still I suspect those people following two feet behind feel a little invincible. Maybe it’s the power brakes and not the air bags. Or maybe it’s the driver training instructors. The ones that teach kids to hug parked cars on residential streets just to make sure they’ll hit a door opening or a kid jumping out.
The new problem is these cars are totaled after fender benders due to the airbags and generally being full of plastic and fragile. 2) If it could be better, or it was better 20 years ago, why can’t it be better now?
Well it isn’t on all cars.
The whole transferring energy thing is neither scientific nor accurate. If the car goes from 30 MPH to 0 MPH so do the occupants no matter what vehicle it is. How quickly the occupants go from 30 to 0 and how they are restrained is what changes.
Older cars actually crush more than cars from today, making older cars safer for back seat passengers, so long as they use seat belts.
Airbags are definitely a false sense of security for some people.
It’s the difference between landing on a mattress or the hard floor. Same acceleration and deceleration but the mattress absorbs some of the impact. If you’ve ever rolled out of bed.
Yeah, to illustrate that point, a neighbor has taken to social media to complain about the local speed limits being way out of date based on the capabilities of his modern vehicle. He forgets that speed limits are not necessarily based on his abilities and vehicle capabilities, they need to apply to everyone using the road and other conditions. Kids playing near or darting into streets, older people not as fast of reflexes, dump trucks with 40k lb loads etc. But he is oblivious apparently…
Is your example supposed to be the 2009 Fusion? If so, try again. The collision sensors are located on the back side of the radiator support frame. Prior models had them behind the front bumper. Neither of which will be damaged sufficiently by a baseball or most other non-injurious impacts. Despite what you may want to believe. Plenty of engineering went into their placement and activation scheme. There are two sensors to cover failure to one as well as side, lateral and other impact scenarios. You have zero evidence to support your misguided opinions. Time to move on…
There is one mounted in front of the hood latch support frame, just to the right of the hood latch. Part # 8E53-14B006-AA, at C117 called “front impact severity sensor” This area gets demolished from a deer hit.