How Does an Airbag Restrain?

In moderate to severe frontal or near frontal collisions, even belted occupants can contact the steering wheel or the instrument panel.

In moderate to severe side collisions, even belted occupants can contact the inside of the vehicle.

Airbags supplement the protection provided by safety belts by distributing the force of the impact more evenly over the occupant's body.

Rollover capable roof—rail airbags are designed to help contain the head and chest of occupants in the outboard seating positions in the first and second rows.

The rollover capable roof—rail airbags are designed to help reduce the risk of full or partial ejection in rollover events, although no system can prevent all such ejections.

But airbags would not help in many types of collisions, primarily because the occupant's motion is not toward those airbags. See When Should an Airbag Inflate? for more information.

Airbags should never be regarded as anything more than a supplement to safety belts.

    See also:

    Rear Seats
    Split Folding Seatbacks With this feature, either side of the rear seatback can be folded down for more cargo space. Folding the Seatbacks Notice: Folding a rear seat with the safety belts s ...

    Folding Mirrors
    Manual Folding Mirrors Vehicles with manual fold mirrors are folded inward toward the vehicle to prevent damage when going through an automatic car wash. Push the mirror outward to return it to ...

    Defensive Driving
    Defensive driving means “always expect the unexpected.” The first step in driving defensively is to wear the safety belt. See Safety Belts. - Assume that other road users (pedestrians, bicyclists, ...