Federal investigators, fearful of souring the public on life-saving air bags, have ignored complaints from hundreds of people injured when their air bags malfunctioned, a published report says.
About 250 people have survived crashes because of air bags since the systems were introduced in 1974, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations said.But at least 124 complaints have been filed with the NHTSA reporting burns, broken bones, damaged eyes and other injuries caused by inflating air bags, according to documents obtained by the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel under the Freedom of Information Act.
One death associated with an air bag inflation was reported and the agency has determined that three other deaths resulted partly from the force of an opening air bag hitting the victims' chests, the newspaper said in a report published Sunday.
Many others complained to the safety administration that air bags did not open when they were badly needed.
The federal documents included 430 complaints about bags that failed to fully inflate during crashes, with 289 injuries and eight deaths reported.
Despite that, the agency has contacted few victims who filed complaints and done no investigations of potential defects in air bags, the newspaper said.
Bill Boehly, the safety administration's associate administrator for enforcement, said the agency did not investigate because no single style of car had generated the complaints.
To begin an air bag investigation, he said, the agency would have to receive about 25 complaints per 100,000 cars of a single make and model.