This report presents the results of a study that was conducted to evaluate any impacts and benefits to front seat outboard occupants that can be attributed to the installation of supplementary restraint systems ("air bags") and the use of conventional seat belts in light-duty motor vehicles in Canada. The main objective of the research was to estimate the number of front outboard occupant lives that have been saved by both seat belts and air bags in light-duty vehicles involved in collisions. To accomplish this a combination Seat Belt/Air Bag Evaluation Model was developed and used for measuring both the independent and joint effects of seat belt use and air bag equipped vehicles on the front outboard occupants' level of safety. The model is comprised of three separate modules for estimating the benefits attributable to each of the countermeasures and their joint effects. The results of the analyses demonstrate that air bags provide a supplementary form of protection for preventing fatalities among front outboard occupants of light-duty vehicles involved in collisions in comparison to conventional seat belt restraint systems. The number of occupant lives saved by air bags in light-duty vehicles is estimated to be in the range of 1 (in 1990) to a maximum of 51 in 1997, with a total of 152 lives saved over the eight year period 1990-1997. In contrast, it is estimated that almost 8,600 front seat outboard light-duty vehicle occupants lives have been saved by seat belts over the same eight year period. (Author/publisher).
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