As you may or may not be aware, there is a massive recall of cars that have Takata airbags installed in them due to serious problems that begin when the airbags deploy.
When I say massive, I mean really massive. It is the single largest recall of all time. Something like 34 million airbags are being recalled with 1.5 million of those vehicles being in Canada. In case you don’t know, airbags are a safety system built into most, if not all vehicles these days.
If, or when a vehicle is in a collision, the airbag deploys thereby keeping the driver and passenger a few degrees safer.
The problem with the Takata airbags is that when they deploy they send sharp pieces of metal flying, thereby possibly injuring the drivers or passengers of the vehicles involved in collisions.
The recall is so massive that Takata has made it clear that they are unable to manufacture or make replacement airbags at the rate that is required. It is simply beyond their manufacturing capability to meet the increased demand so therefore there will be vehicles driving on our city streets for the foreseeable future that have Takata airbags in them that if they deploy may in fact injure the occupants of the vehicles.
With that fact in mind, it is interesting to me that in the conversation about the safety of drivers and passengers, the only talk is about how quickly the Takata airbag recall and replacement can be done – admittedly a very important issue that needs to be dealt with as soon as possible.
However, another approach that could be brought in for the interim to help keep people safe while Takata is dealing with the faulty airbags is that perhaps people driving cars and trucks on our city streets could actually respect the posted speed limits.
It has been scientifically proven that vehicles that collide at 50 km/h or less results in significantly less injuries to the drivers and passengers than vehicles colliding at higher rates of speed. The higher the speed of the vehicles that collide, the greater the injuries to the motor vehicle operator and passengers.
Having people respecting the legal posted speed limits would not only give Takata more time to respond and deal with the faulty airbags, it would also make our city streets that much safer for people in cars, trucks, motorcycles, and those wacky people who choose to ride bicycles.
After Takata has had an opportunity to process and fix the faulty airbags, perhaps then we could go back to our blatant disregard of the speed limits.