A new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety examines the effect on driver deaths of reducing the force with which airbags inflate. Depowering airbags was the result of a 1997 decision by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to change tests for airbags to enable car manufacturers to use lower-powered versions in models starting in 1998 because of concerns that unbelted passengers were being killed by airbags that inflated with too much power. A study of real-world crashes shows that, except in pickup trucks, i.e., for cars, SUVs and minivans, occupants of 1998 and 1999 models were less likely to die in a serious crash than occupants in the same models manufactured in 1997, the year before the rule change. At issue was the way the airbags' effectiveness was tested. The study controlled for factors that could have distorted statistics such as annual miles driven per vehicle and substantial structural changes from 1997 to 1998 models
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