Are airbags a dangerous safety measure? A meta-analysis of the effects of frontal airbags on driver fatalities

Abstract

A meta-analysis has been conducted of the effectiveness of frontal airbags in reducing driver fatalities, and some potential moderator variables for airbag effectiveness have been investigated. The results confirm the assumption that airbags reduce accident fatalities among belted drivers, but the results are too heterogeneous for drawing conclusions about the size of the overall effect. No support has been found for the hypothesis that airbags increase overall fatality risk, as has been found in the study by Meyer and Finney (Meyer, M., Finney, T., 2005. Who wants Airbags? Chance, 18 (19) 3-16). The results do not seem to be affected by publication bias, and no indications of confounding effects of vehicle characteristics or impact velocity have been found. In frontal collisions belted driver fatalities were found to be reduced by about 22% when all types of airbags are regarded together. The revision of the test criteria for airbags in the USA in 1997 has improved airbag effectiveness. For unbelted drivers airbags are neither effective nor counterproductive, but may increase fatality risk in single vehicle accidents. The results show that there is a lack of knowledge about the effects of airbags in accidents that are not frontal collisions.