Photo: IIHS
Knee airbags have been on the market for a little over two decades, having been introduced by carmakers Kia and Toyota. The idea behind their current wide-spread use is that they could help reduce leg injuries in the event of a crash.
But the contribution made to the well being of car occupants is negligible, and could even be harmful, a new study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) says.
According to the safety organization, a wealth of data was analyzed before reaching this conclusion. More to the point, the IIHS looked into 400 frontal crash tests it conducted, compared them with crash reports from 14 states, and found little benefits from the use of knee airbags.
By comparing cars equipped with this technology with vehicles that lack it, the IIHS says it found there’s little reduction in injury risk for occupants, and there’s even a possibility of increasing it in some cases.
In the driver-side small overlap front and moderate overlap front crash tests conducted, knee airbags were found to actually contribute to an increased injury risk for lower leg and right femur.
Thanks to the fact that these airbags limit body movement during a crash, the risk of head injury was however slightly reduced.
In real life crashes, IIHS says knee airbags are responsible for a 0.5 percent decrease in overall injury risk, a statistically negligible number.
So why do carmakers keep installing knee airbags? IIHS says they do this to pass crash tests with unbelted dummies. The organzation even admits the technology could help in such a scenario, although there's no data to back this belief.
“There are many different design strategies for protecting against the kind of leg and foot injuries that knee airbags are meant to address,” said in a statement Becky Mueller, an IIHS senior research engineer. “Other options may be just as, if not more, effective.”
According to the safety organization, a wealth of data was analyzed before reaching this conclusion. More to the point, the IIHS looked into 400 frontal crash tests it conducted, compared them with crash reports from 14 states, and found little benefits from the use of knee airbags.
By comparing cars equipped with this technology with vehicles that lack it, the IIHS says it found there’s little reduction in injury risk for occupants, and there’s even a possibility of increasing it in some cases.
In the driver-side small overlap front and moderate overlap front crash tests conducted, knee airbags were found to actually contribute to an increased injury risk for lower leg and right femur.
Thanks to the fact that these airbags limit body movement during a crash, the risk of head injury was however slightly reduced.
In real life crashes, IIHS says knee airbags are responsible for a 0.5 percent decrease in overall injury risk, a statistically negligible number.
So why do carmakers keep installing knee airbags? IIHS says they do this to pass crash tests with unbelted dummies. The organzation even admits the technology could help in such a scenario, although there's no data to back this belief.
“There are many different design strategies for protecting against the kind of leg and foot injuries that knee airbags are meant to address,” said in a statement Becky Mueller, an IIHS senior research engineer. “Other options may be just as, if not more, effective.”
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