Abstract
From April 1988 to September 1990, Chrysler Corporation converted all its United States built passenger cars to equip them with a driver airbag supplemental restraint system. This paper compares the driver fatality rates for each of the converted vehicles before and after the introduction of the driver airbag. There is not enough fatality data available to statistically quantify the effectiveness of the driver airbag. A methodology for assessing the effectiveness is demonstrated which will quantify it when more data are available. Driver airbags show directional improvement in reducing driver fatalities, but the magnitudes are not statistically reliable at this time.